The Effect of Motivation on Learners' Performance and Satisfaction under Flipped Strategy in Discrete Math

This Research Work in Progress paper presents preliminary data from an experiment study (N = 22) in investigating the effect of learners' motivation on learning outcomes, including learning performance and satisfaction. In STEM fields, learners are required to obtain declarative knowledge as well as apply them to solve real world problems. The flipped strategy has been a popular instructional approach and is used in many classrooms. Although many studies reported positive impact of the flipped strategy, the results are not consistent. The goal of this study is to explore whether learners' motivation in a flipped classroom affect their performance and their satisfaction. We use a quasi-experimental design with two groups based on the initial motivation scores. We find that our participants did not benefit from flipped strategy as much as the traditional strategy. We also found that the participants did not feel better (confident) about the subject. We conclude that students may not be comfortable with the flipped strategy because the flipped strategy is used for only about two weeks and that great instructional attentions may be needed to use the flipped strategy. In the end, we propose areas that are worthy of further investigation.