Flipping diverse classrooms: Instructor experiences and perceptions

Flipped Classroom is a pedagogical approach in which all or some of direct instruction is moved outside of the face-to-face environment to dedicate more in-class time to ‘hands-on’, experimental and engaging activities. Usually enabled by educational technology, the Flipped Classroom approach draws on the ‘active learning’ philosophy which implies that students must share responsibility for their learning with their instructors, resulting in more impactful learner behaviours. Considering university classrooms are increasingly diverse, with international students forming a significant cohort of learners, instructor perceptions of internationals students in Flipped Classrooms are of interest. This is particularly important because international students, especially those from Asian countries, can be perceived by instructors as ‘passive’ learners’ regardless of students’ actual skills, learning preferences and goals. This presumed ‘passivity’ may clash with instructors’ goals, potentially creating tensions-filled dynamics between instructors and international students in Flipped Classrooms. The proposed article explores university instructors’ perceptions of international students in technology-enabled Flipped Classrooms to understand how these perceptions may influence instructors’ choices for the design of the flip. Findings demonstrate that while some instructors view international students as a barrier to impactful Flipped Classroom, others draw on their classroom’s diversity, using it as a source of inspiration, and designing the flip with international students in mind.