Will flipping the classroom for Principles of Managerial Accounting s budgeting unit improve student learning on In-Class Assignment 7?

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1 Project Flip Unit 7 (Budgets & Budgeting) 441 Project 441 Flip Unit 7 (Budgets & Budgeting) Project Cecil Battiste Owner Discipline Accounting Course ACG 2071 Principles of Management Accounting Accounting for business information requirements with cost accounting concepts and East relationships, statement of cash flows, financial statement analysis, cost-volume-profit Campus analysis, variance analysis, budgeting, pricing decision, capital expenditure decisions, and management accounting analysis for decision making. Primary Cecil Battiste Instructor Project 06/15/2014 Started Completed 09/22/2014 On Project Authors Cecil Battiste cbattiste@valenciacollege.edu Abstract Abstract This ARP relates to using the flipped classroom model of instruction to see if student achievement on Principles of Managerial Accounting Unit 7 (Budgeting) will be improved or not. Research Question Research Question Will flipping the classroom for Principles of Managerial Accounting s budgeting unit improve student learning on In-Class Assignment 7? Preparation Student Perspective Student: Research indicates that a lecture is an inefficient way to convey information especially if the students are not prepared for class. Currently, I use a lecture/discussion model to teach ACG 2071 Principles of Managerial Accounting s unit on budgeting and then the students are expected to work through the assignments after the lecture/discussion. Roughly fifty percent of the class is able to complete the assignments after the class discussion and the other fifty percent is lost. They won t even know where to start. They will go to the tutors or require someone sitting next to them to explain to them step by step. Students tend to listen to lectures/discussions without taking notes. When they start the assignments they then go back to the course materials and try to look at an example. It is fine to look at an example but it would be preferable if, instead of having roughly half the class get next to nothing from the lecture, I found a more useful use of that class time.

2 Colleague Perspective Colleague: I gather, from previous conversations with my peers, that they encounter some of the same problems and challenges as I do on when they cover budgeting related material. It is clear to me, from numerous conversations with the other accounting faculty, that students not reading the instructional materials before class is normal, unfortunately. Students not taking notes and/or active listening is par for the course. Students needing help from tutors or their classmates is the norm. In addition, I often hear from colleagues how math challenged students are. The math relationships on budgets isn t really that difficult but the learner does have to be able to think at some practical level to get it and some students, here again about fifty percent, struggle to fully understand the interrelationships between one budget and another. In many case, the folks I work with assign questions through a homework manager and require the students to attempt to get to an answer and after the third attempt the answer will be provided. This system has some inherent flaws one of which is students purposely getting the question wrong just to get to the answer and circumventing any sort of critical thinking or effort along the way. Expert Perspective Expert: For almost as long as I ve been teaching, I ve been hearing about how low comprehension is from a lecture. In a day and age of instant gratification and smart phones it is even more challenging to use the lecture/discussion model to get students to master a particular LO. Teaching & learning research suggests using shorter lectures, demonstration problems, examples and/or cases that are hands-on as a way to get students involved. The point is to make sure students are active and not passive. My review of teaching & learning research confirms what I experience as a classroom teacher. Flipping the classroom isn t a magic bullet because some students can t function without first hearing the teacher explain things and because if you flip the classroom it means the students should do some of the work before class and they often don t (Citation 1). This article also mentioned a cognitive strain that students sometimes experience in the flipped classroom model of instruction. Furthermore, just because the students are active and/or engaged doesn t mean they are learning the course LO s (Citation 2). The teacher has to make sure that activities result in mastering the course LO s as opposed to just keeping students busy. The point here is that I have to make sure the activities I use line up to the LO I want the students to master. Citation 1: Berrett, Dan. The Chronicle of Education. How Flipping the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture. February 19, Date accessed May 12, Citation 2: Weimer, Dr. Maryellen. Faculty Focus Website. Five Characteristics of Learning-Centered Teaching. August 8, Date accessed May 12, Self Perspective Self: I want to flip the unit on budgeting because I no longer believe there is any point in my standing up there and trying to explain how budgets work

3 using a demonstration problem. I d rather have them work through some sort of demonstration problem with my guiding them and answering questions as they work. I am pretty sure I want the class activity I use to be a formative assessment that is turned in for points so that the class takes it seriously. So, instead of a lecture I want to create a guided activity that encourages questions and allows students to construct their own learning but that is turned in for points. All of that that will be followed by additional formative assessments that are gradually harder and more challenging leading to a summative assessments (Test 3 and the comprehensive final exam). In order to ensure that students come to class prepared, I plan to require them to turn in a quiz online before class starts. Methods & Assessment Student Learning Outcome The student will be able to: Prepare operating budgets for merchandise organizations. Indicators of Student Learning Outcomes The student will be able to: Forecast the units sold for a merchandise company. Evaluate the effect volume has on fixed, variable and mixed costs. Prepare a sales budget and a cash collection schedule based on reasonable estimates and assumptions. Prepare an inventory purchases budget and cash payments schedule based on the reasonable estimates and assumptions. Prepare a cash budget based on reasonable estimates and assumptions. SUPPORTING FILE: 2Flip7 Grp#1

4 Teaching, Counseling or Librarianship Strategies Out of Class Preparation: 1. The students will be required to read Handout 7 before class. 2. The students will be required to turn in Quiz 7 online before the start of class. In Class Activities: Day 1: 3. The teacher will put the students into 4 person groups as soon as class starts. 4. The first group will go into Blackboard and download 2Flip7 Grp#1, the second group will download 2Flip7 Grp#2, the third group will download 2Flip7 Grp#3, etc. 5. Each group will go into Blackboard and download 2Flip7 Template. 6. Each group will spend the rest of the class period working on the assignment. Questions will be encouraged and they can use Handout 7 as a reference. I expect very good peer to peer collaboration. 7. Each group will turn in their work at the end of class, and the teacher will grade it as a quiz grade. In Class Activities: Day 2: 8. The teacher will hand back the graded assignments and show the class the correct answer. This will be the basis for a discussion about not only how service and merchandise companies prepare budgets but all the other SLO s in Unit 7 such as approaches to budgeting and uses of budgets to plan and control an organization s operations. 9. The teacher will assign In-Class Assignment The students will complete and turn in In-Class Assignment 7 with the time remaining in that class period. Out of Class: 11. The teacher will grade and hand back In-Class Assignment The summative assessments for this course LO will be Test 4 and the comprehensive final exam. Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes Formative assessments: Quiz 7, 2Flip7 Assignment, In-Class Assignment 7. Summative Assessments: Test 4

5 and the Big Bad Comprehensive Final Exam (shudders). In-Class Assignment 7 is 20 multiple choice style questions that require students to set up budgets and answer questions about how organizations use budgets to plan and control operations and also requires the students to watch a YouTube video and then respond to a few more questions. In-Class Assignment 7 is done on the second class meeting of Unit 7. A copy of 2Flip Assignment 7 is uploaded. This is group 1's version if you want the other groups versions just me. Quiz 7 is six or seven short essay questions that relate course material students have to read before class starts. The quiz is designed to get students to come to class prepared to learn and not much else. The 2Flip7 Assignment, as I think I might have explained elsewhere, is a one page assignment that gives the students some basic information so that they can prepare budgets for an organization. To complete the Flip Assignment students have to sort through some data and make reasonable assumptions about things such as how many units will be sold in future periods. Action Research Methodology To determine if flipping the classroom for Unit 7 resluts in more student Design learning and better engagement, I looked at student performance on In- Class Assignment 7 before and after using a flipped classroom for this unit. In other words, I looked at how well the studens did on In-Class Assignment 7 with a traditional class lecture/discussion, Q&A format of covering the material versus how well the students did using a flipped classroom approach. I think if the raw score on In-Class Assignment 7 is higher that will be useful information. I can't use performance on any of the summative assessments because they involved multiple course LO's. I don't think any sort of statistical analysis will answer my research question, I could be wrong, but it seems to me of students do better on the formative assessments even without stats it answers the RQ. Results Results The average score on In-Class Assignment 7 from previous semesters was out of a possible 20. The average is based on hundreds of students turning in In-Class Assignment 7 over multiple semesters. Twenty-seven students over two sections turned in In-Class Assignment 7 in the Summer B session of 2014 and the average score was The students seemed to do better on the formative assessment using the flipped classroom approach. Reflection

6 Reflection I think flipping the classroom worked pretty well for Unit 7 based on looking at well the students did in two 2014 summer B sections. I want learning to be fun. Therefore, I want to pull the students through the course material not "push" them through it. I want to take advantage of their own innate curiosity and intelligence. I feel like, in some cases, a lecture bores people half to death. The problem, I think, is they are not involved in the learning process because they don't take notes. Thus, the lecture format of teaching, even with the "class discussion" part, isn't very effective. I feel like I am losing nothing by not doing a lecture. I notoced a few things, in each of my classes, as the students were doing the flipped assignment and In-Class Assignment 7 that are worth nothing. One, the students seemed more engaged and interested in the material using a flipped classroom for this unit. That may be anecdotal but it is important. Second, the students asked more intelligent questions in the summer under the flipped approach than they did in previosu sessions. Third, the students seemed to "construct their own learning" which is more authentic I think. I also noticed that even though I didn't do the lecture on the first day we started the unit I still did parts of the lecture on the second day of the unit as we were going over the answer to the flipped assignment. So, from my point of view, the lecture is not completely dead or ineffective. The lecture, and class discussion that goes with it, is still useful but mostly AFTER the students have already been engaged in some sort of problem basd learning activity. Dissemination Plan for Dissemination I will be at the wrap up meeting today (December 5, 2014) and will share my experiences with others today. I will also discuss the results of flipping unit 7 for ACG 2071 with my colleagues at meetings we have an by . I will share my results with my dean, Carin Gordon, and I have already flipped a few other units for ACG 2071 and ACG Lastly, I wil probably talk about this at other meetings when I interact with other Valencia faculty such as the Essential Competency Review team I am on. Thanks! U P L O A D S Element File Name File Type Action Methods & Assessment : Strategies 2Flip7 Grp#1 docx open Methods & Assessment : Strategies 2Flip7 Solution.xls open Methods & Assessment : Strategies 2Flip7 Template.xls open Methods & Assessment : ARP Design 2Flip7 Group#1 docx open