The Effects of Using Flipped Cloud Learning With Advancing Mathematical Thinking Approaches on Undergraduate Students’ Mathematical Critical Thinking

Abstract

The flipped learning approach of instruction sees classroom lectures moved outside of classrooms through devices and technology. Homework is moved inside classrooms as learning activities. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, cloud-based education platforms - the organization of the educational environment in the cloud as a tool to enable teaching and learning - have been widely deployed to support online instruction. In this study, flipped cloud learning, incorporating approach of advancing mathematical thinking, were conducted in Mathematical Analysis course to study students’ mathematical critical thinking. A quantitative method, using a pre-test-post-test design, was employed with a group of 56 undergraduate mathematics students. The research instrument was a mathematical critical thinking ability test. The quantitative data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis, n-gain and t-test. The findings revealed that students had statistically significant mathematical critical thinking of higher than 60% of the full score at the .05 level. There was an increase in students’ mathematical critical thinking abilities with a mean n-gain of .64, which was moderate. The findings also show that the students’ mathematical critical thinking was significantly enhanced by this approach at .05 level. Thus, it could be summarized that integrating strategy for advancing mathematical thinking into flipped cloud learning positively affected students’ mathematical critical thinking. The results also suggest that this reformed learning approach might be usefully employed as an instruction model in the new normal context.