Flipped classroom writing instruction: Investigating the moderating effect of EFL students’ resilience

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the impact of the interaction between a learner's resilience and two flipped classroom (FC) instructional models for teaching writing: the traditional flipped classroom (TFC) and the Explore Flip Apply (EFA) strategy. The two models differed in terms of the extent to which they included inquiry-based learning and risk-taking. The second technique included a phase of inquiry-based learning before the normal video-based instruction that characterizes flipped classroom teaching. The participants of the study comprised three EFL secondary school classes that were selected from an Egyptian secondary school for girls in Egypt. Three instruments were utilized in the study: a writing skills checklist, a writing pre-posttest and a resilience scale. The findings demonstrated that the adoption of the FC strategy resulted in increased levels of engagement among learners in class and improvement in their writing skills. Nevertheless, students identified as having low resilience showed minimal improvement in the EFA intervention with regards to their writing skills. Yet, their performance shown some degree of improvement in the TFC intervention. On the other hand, students who had higher levels of resilience did better than students with lower resilience levels in both treatments. It was concluded that the adoption of distinct FC models can help in targeting students of various resilience levels, using strategies that cater for their learning styles.