21st Century Learning in Primary Science Subject via Flipped Classroom Method: A Teacher’s Perspective

Abstract

The flipped classroom is one of the approaches used in 21st-century teaching practices. Contrary in primary education, various works of literature on the flipped classroom approach were studied in the secondary and tertiary education level. Thus, continuing the contribution to the body of knowledge, this preliminary research is done to explore the main themes in conducting a flipped classroom approach to promote 21st-century learning in primary school science. From the selection of a teacher, series of interviews, classroom observations and document reviews were analyzed systematically. The findings reveal three themes in primary science flipped classroom implementations including the affordances, assistance, and challenges. There are various aspects taken into consideration from the teacher and teaching surrounding for the flipped classroom settings to be conducive. The teacher realized that although flipped classroom helped her in many ways yet there are challenges that she needs to resolve. These findings provided a foundation for preliminary direction for the researcher to do further research planning.

Full text

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-8 Issue-6S3, September 2019
661
Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
& Sciences Publication
Retrieval Number: F11220986S319/2019©BEIESP
DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319

Abstract:The flipped classroom is one of the approaches used
in 21st-century teaching practices. Contrary in primary
education, various works of literature on the flipped classroom
approach were studied in the secondary and tertiary education
level. Thus, continuing the contribution to the body of knowledge,
this preliminary research is done to explore the main themes in
conducting a flipped classroom approach to promote 21st-century
learning in primary school science. From the selection of a
teacher, series of interviews, classroom observations and
document reviews were analyzed systematically. The findings
reveal three themes in primary science flipped classroom
implementations including the affordances, assistance, and
challenges. There are various aspects taken into consideration
from the teacher and teaching surrounding for the flipped
classroom settings to be conducive. The teacher realized that
although flipped classroom helped her in many ways yet there are
challenges that she needs to resolve. These findings provided a
foundation for preliminary direction for the researcher to do
further research planning.
Keywords: 21st Century learning, flipped classroom, primary
education, science education.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, vast innovations have immersed in education
including the 21st-century teaching and learning approaches
in the science field. Educational pedagogy keeps on
transforming into a more advanced environment. There were
also varieties of interactive teaching tools, and teaching
approaches have been applied in teaching and learning
activities. Numerous studies had been conducted to test and
verified numerous techniques and methods in teaching and
learning. In this research, the flip classroom was centered on
this exploratory case study.
A flip classroom can be closely related to the inverted
classroom that promotes learning outside the classroom
(Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000). In conducting the FC teaching
and learning session, students are given some learning
materials so that they can learn by themselves first before
entering the class on the next day. Since the flipped
classroom is still at its early phase in Malaysia, there are
limited studies done in this area (Rahman, Aris, Mohammed,
Revised Manuscript Received on September 22, 2019.
* Correspondence Author
Mohd Fadzly Wasriep*, Faculty of Psychology and Education,
Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Email:
mohdfadzlywasriep@gmail.com
Denis Lajium, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti
Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Email: denisadl@ums.edu.my
Zaid, & Abdullah, 2014).
21st-Century learning enhances the empowering of the
student as the main focus in a teaching and learning process.
The use of technology and digital literacy is crucial to
enhance and to nourish the learning environment (B
Boholano, 2017). The 4C skills which comprising of
creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication
need to be emphasized so that learners could adapt to the 21st
Century learning (Sipayung, Sani, & Bunawan, 2018). A
teaching and learning session learning should be more
activity oriented, inquiry and project-based so that the
21st-century education and skill could be provided to the
learners (Garba, Byabazaire, & Busthami, 2015).
Not to be neglected, the role of teachers is significant to
facilitate the learner experiencing meaningful learning. For
mastery learning, teachers will guide and scaffold the
learners‟ learning processes especially from the elementary
level to truly become an expert (Krahenbuhl, 2016). This
include in the approaches such as discovery learning, inquiry
learning, and problem-based learning.
The following aspects such as the TPACK, ICT literacy,
inquiry approach, and self-regulated learning will reflect on
the themes related to the findings. These aspects should be
taken into consideration in primary science flipped classroom
implementation.
A. Technological pedagogical content knowledge
(TPACK)
As an individual center of the teaching and learning
process in a classroom, a competent teacher should be
equipped with the technological knowledge (TK),
pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK)
(Koehler & Mishra, 2009). These will help the teacher to
play the role of facilitating the learning process. Teachers
need to have the TPAC to deal with 21st-century teaching
and learning.
B. ICT literacy
ICT literacy is very crucial among teachers. It is to assist
many innovative teaching tools, which require the teacher to
be skillful in searching related information, create and
integrate information, and organizing the information in a
virtual platform (Mazalah, Jamaludin, Ahmad Zamri, Aidah
Abdul, & Fariza, 2015). 21st-century students are indeed
familiar with the use of current informational devices. From
here, to help students achieve the learning outcomes,
21st Century Learning in Primary Science
Subject via Flipped Classroom Method: A
Teacher‟s Perspective
Mohd Fadzly Wasriep, Denis Lajium

21st Century Learning in Primary Science Subject via Flipped Classroom Method: A Teacher’s Perspective
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DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319
the new learning schemata could be harness from the
channeling of social connectedness and cognitive
connectedness in this ICT mediated learning (Sontag, 2009).
C. Inquiry approach
Teacher and student should break the silence in the
traditional classroom. Active learning based on questioning
session and two ways teacher students‟ communication is
needed in the elementary science education (Lin, Liu, Chen,
Wang, & Kao, 2016). This way of communication is to
ensure that inquiry is happening in the learning process
(Martin-Hansen, 2002) as the five features in inquiry
learning;
1. Learner engages in scientifically oriented questions
2. Learner gives priority to evidence in responding to
questions
3. Learner formulates explanations from evidence
4. Learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge
5. Learner communicates and justifies explanations
By using the flipped classroom approach, students can
communicate with peers and teachers frequently and
whenever they needed. Via online communication, teacher
and student are capable of initiating the pre, while and post
information discussions. The three phases of scaffolding
learning will strengthen students‟ learning (Clark & Graves,
2005). Students can be guided to accomplish the science
subject tasks through the flipped classroom approach.
D. Self-regulated learning
Self-regulated learning generally means the ability of an
individual to have control over his learning process that is
also associated with motivation, cognitive, metacognitive and
individual attitudes (de Boer, Donker-Bergstra, Kostons,
Korpershoek, & van der Werd, 2013). On the other hand, it
also refers to the tendency of an individual or student to have
a desire to draw lessons with his or her initiative. Someone
who has this tendency will have a high desire to study. In this
case, cognitive processes have relationships with individual
affective, self-assessment, motivation and behavior of
individuals (Bandura, 1991). The other aspect should be
further explored so that the flipped classroom approach can
be implemented in primary science education and also the
other educational courses. The teacher plays an important
role to guide the learning process. Students deserve to
experience active learning that they should communicate
with related information meaningfully.
E. Problem Statement
The main issue relating to this study is that the flipped
classroom implementation is still limited among Malaysian
primary educators. Based on the literature, this may be due to
the challenges in the planning and implementation process.
For example, some senior educators are having difficulties
blending with the new teaching technologies nowadays
(Nilsson & van Driel, 2010). Even in a higher education
level, constraints such as lack of resources, Internet
connection problem and lecturer skills that create a barrier to
conduct flipped classroom effectively (S. Z. M. Osman,
Jamaludin, & Mokhtar, 2014). The same situation goes to the
teachers and also students in primary school. They are still
not familiar with learning science via the flip classroom. It is
undeniable that some of them are literate in using the ICT, but
they chose not to use it. The school ICT center is not
efficiently functioning, and the online learning links provided
in the science textbook seemed to be non-beneficial for the
learners.
Indeed, most of the learning communities are trapped in a
conventional learning culture. Some of the teachers were
demotivated of the difficulty to access the available and
limited ICT facilities at the school thus limiting the
21st-century learning experience among the learners (Garba
et al., 2015). Especially in science education, most of the
students are still lacking the opportunities to have a new way
of discovery in acquiring scientific knowledge. Up until
now, they only relied on textbooks and did not have the
intrinsic will to search for more information on their own.
They are merely studying what was given by the teachers.
Many of them have no experiences on the flip classroom.
They did not even realize their potential and connect their
skills in ICT, which may benefit their learning. This potential
unawareness will disengage the students‟ interest in learning
more about science. This situation shall be prevented so that
the primary school positive attitude toward science will face
no degrading on the 7th grade (Mihladiz, Duran, & Doǧan,
2011).
Another aspect is about the limited teaching and learning
period in primary science lessons. Most of the primary
school students will be having only two hours lesson in a
week. This limitation is somehow affecting the
communication quality among the students, teachers, and
peers. Students should be taught to ask questions while
learning, to promote reasoning and problem-solving skills
(Gillies, Nichols, Burgh, & Haynes, 2013). However, within
that limited time of the lesson, not much question is expected
from the students. From the data in 2001, only 31 percent of
Malaysia‟s 7127 primary schools were supplied with the
computer (Belawati, 2001). This number must be
proliferating until 2017. However, still, with only that
limited time for science learning, not much can be done by
the teachers. Some of them only able to focus on remediating
the low achiever student but not for the enrichment activity
(Smeets, 2005).
Some students appeared to be less interested in the way of
teaching and learning at their school (Suduc, Bizoi, &
Gorghiu, 2015). Nowadays it is the same scenario happening
in a typical primary school. None ICT medium for them to
use, besides the teachers also facing the problem to conduct
blended learning in school due to the latest Malaysians‟
computer to learner ratio of 13:1 (UNESCO, 2016). The
student did facing problem to imagine the process of the
moon phase because they are still lack of the experience to
the knowledge that is more theory and abstract (K. Osman,
2012). For example, in the topic of moon phases, no useful
teaching aids such as interactive video were used to explain
the moon phases.

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-8 Issue-6S3, September 2019
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DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319
Other than that, the traditional teaching and learning
session is still in the exam-oriented mode. There was a
culture of learning only at school, finishing homework at
home, and revise to excel in the exam. Most of the students
are still out of the „need to know‟ attitude zone. They were
still in their comfort zone, „because it is only needed for test‟.
Some of them have the mindset that learning science is only
to learn what the teachers told them to learn (Tugurian &
Carrier, 2016). Moreover, the 2016 Malaysian department of
statistic data reported an increase in Internet use among the
citizen. On average, a student spent three hours in a day to
access the Internet and 94.7% claimed that they used the
Internet for study purposes. However, still, why is the flip
classroom is not widely used in primary science education?
Since science flip classroom is still new in primary
education, there is an ambiguous aspect of how it conducted.
This question emphasizes the same concern from
(Savelsbergh et al., 2016) that, any innovative teaching
approach is indeed practical in many ways. However, it is
how the content knowledge was delivered and how to
implement the approach is that crucially matters. In
Malaysians‟ school context, the flipped classroom issues
were not very popular based on the current limited study
(Rahman et al., 2014). It is not impossible for the flipped
classroom to be successfully done in Malaysian education.
Hence, further exploration could be done to inspect the
emerging aspects regarding its implementation process. I
agree to (Azlina A Rahman, Hasnah Mohamed, Baharuddin
Aris, & Norasykin Mohd Zaid, 2014) including the learning
styles and activities, and the process of creating the flipped
learning pattern starting from school, especially in primary
education stream. This exploration will also be contributing
to the needs of more sources of information to expand the
potential of the flipped classroom in Asia (Chua & Lateef,
2014) and the other field of learning subject weather science
or social studies (Zainuddin & Attaran, 2016).
The research question that was examined in this study is,
what is the teacher‟s perception of promoting 21st-century
learning in primary science subject via implementing the
flipped classroom approach?
F. Theoretical Framework
In the 1970s an "open classroom" was started to be a
phenomenon in the west education before the one
student-one laptop in the next decade (Fulton, 2012). The
terminology and the idea of the blended learning, inverted
classroom and flip classroom were next. Indeed, the flip
classroom has been trending in the recent study. Learning
outside the classroom means learning through the use of the
Internet and the social platform such as Facebook (Li, Lou,
Tseng, & Huang, 2013) and YouTube (See & Conry, 2014),
that focuses on the active learning and students explorations.
Videotape lecture was not compulsory as it is only will help
in assisting the students' comprehension of what they are
learning (See & Conry, 2014).
Based on the Vygotskian theory of socio-cultural learning,
learners were given the responsibility to autonomously learn
by themselves (Panhwar, Ansari, & Ansari, 2016). This
independent learning was happening from two learning
setting which is the inter-psychological and the
intra-psychological. From these learning setting, learners
will first gain knowledge from other individuals and society
and then strengthening their learning from reapplying it to the
new context.
The constructivist theory of learning explains about
learners' process of knowledge acquisition. The theory is
originating from the psychologist and educators such as
Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, and Jean Piaget. Those
scholars believed in two different aspects in the
constructivism, which are the cognitive constructivism and
the social constructivism (Liu, 2010).
II. METHODOLOGY
A. The participant
In this case study, purposive sampling is used in a
qualitative way to an emphasis on the views of those who are
known to encounter the same phenomenal experience
(Groenewald, 2004). A Science teacher was selected
purposely as a sample from one district in Sabah. The teacher
was from primary school. This teacher is majoring in
Science, had a very well experienced in Science teaching
with the title of “Lead primary science teacher,” applied the
FC approach in her teaching sessions and a minimum of 10
years in service. This selection was based on the
recommendation from the professional authorities
(Gomez-Zwiep, 2008).
B. Plan and setting
After the teachers‟ selection session, the selected teacher
was brief about the role and needs of the study in the first
session of the meeting. The next step of data collection was
recorded as in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1:The sessions involved in the study.
Session
Activity
Setting
1.
First meeting with
the selected teacher
Date and time (1) at
selected place or room.
2.
First Interview
session
Date and time (2) at the
same place or room.
3.
Observation session
Date and time (3) at the
same place or room.
4.
Second Interview
session
Date and time (4) at the
same place or room.
5.
Analysing related
document
Date and time (5) at the
same place or room.
C. Data Collection Methods
The data collected in this research was conducted to
discover who, what, and how about the situation (Handcock,
Ockleford, & Windridge, 2009). All of the data were
collected using the semi-structured interview, participant
observation and document review on teacher‟s and student‟s
work samples. A list of interview protocols was suggested
based on the research question. This protocol was also based
on the Feedback
Questionnaire on Flipped
Classroom Activity, which

21st Century Learning in Primary Science Subject via Flipped Classroom Method: A Teacher’s Perspective
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DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319
validated by (Barua & Kumar Shiva Gubbiyappa, Hasnain
Zafar Baloch, 2014). This protocol was tested with the
teacher as a pilot procedure to have a better interview
question (Turner, 2010).
From the modified protocols, we can acquire in-depth and
more detailed information to respond to the research
questions respectively. The researcher will use the interview
at the beginning and the end of the research period. In the
same time, an observation session and document review
(Creswell, 2013) process were conducted. The data
collection methods were used in a different time to
triangulate the findings. Table 3.2 shows the data collection
method in this study.
Table 3.2: The data collection method used in the
study.
Research
Questions
Interviews
Observations
Document
Analysis
1.
What is the
teacher‟s
perception on
the
implementation
of flipped
classroom
approach in
primary science
subject?
2
1
1
D. Data Analysis
The design of qualitative data analysis is mainly to
understand the participant‟s thought and to answer the
research questions. A grounded theory analysis technique
was used in this study (Strayer, 2012). Qualitative content
analysis is a dynamic form of analysis of verbal and visual
data that is oriented toward summarizing the informational
contents of that data (Sandelowski, 2000). Hence a
systematic transcription process was made in term of making
meaning to data. These include coding, the emerging keys
(Unruh, Peters, & Willis, 2016), subcategories and
categories, sub-themes and the central theme (Taylor-Powell
& Marcus renner, 2003). All the data were compared, and
contrast before joined into the same cluster respectively.
This procedure will use a few processes including an
iterative, inductive and finally a reductive process that
organized the entire information following the three stages.
These stages formed data that were labeled with open, axial,
and selective coding (Walker & Myrick, 2011). The
researcher was comparing all the observation session for data
triangulation. From this, it was then decided which data from
the observations align with the related categories (Dey,
2003).
E. Data Presentations
The final expected outcome of this study would provide
direct descriptive summaries of the informational contents of
data organized in a way that best fits the research question
(Sandelowski, 2000). The final phase of data analysis,
according to Miles and Huberman (1994), consists of
drawing initial conclusions based on the cross-case data
findings and then using these initial conclusions to
verification procedures. In this study, the data was cross-case
between the pre and post findings. From the comparison,
codes were merged and differentiated in respective
categories. These procedures are intended to confirm that
findings are appropriate before they are labeled as conclusive
results. At last, this will then gave rich elaborations of the
research questions and more in-depth insight into the
complete study (Dey, 2003).
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The result indicates that there are three themes based on
the implementation of primary science flipped classroom to
promote 21st-century learning as in Figure 4.1. Every theme
was viewed based on the teacher‟s perspectives through her
experience teaching science via a flipped classroom
approach. On each theme, some supporting aspects had
contributed to the themes.
Figure 4.1 Teacher‟s View on Primary Science Flipped
Classroom Implementation
A. Discussion on the Emerging Themes
Three main themes were developed from the categories.
Each category was formed from the related subcategories as
recorded in Table 4.1 to 4.3. These tables showed the
overview of each theme followed by the quotes‟ descriptions.
The first theme is regarding the teacher‟s affordance that
divided into two sub-themes which are the teacher‟s
background and the teaching preparations as recorded in
Table 4.1.
Table 4.1: Overview of the teacher‟s affordances.
Affordances
Teacher‟s
background
Teachers‟ knowledge
about FC
Teachers‟
Pedagogical
knowledge
Teachers‟ attitude on
flipped classroom
Teaching
preparations
Selection of topic
Selection of activity
Developing the lesson
plan
Identification of
student‟s learning
ability

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-8 Issue-6S3, September 2019
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DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319
About the teacher‟s background, knowing about the
flipped classroom approach, well experienced in the primary
school science content knowledge and the willingness toward
FC application is the factors that contribute to the affordance.
Moreover, a systematic preparation before conducting the FC
class is a phase that also needs to be emphasized to ensure a
successful teaching and learning session. As stated in the
following excerpts, the teacher gave her perceptions on the
implementation of a flipped classroom in a science class and
how she does the teaching preparation.
“I have had exposed with this way of teaching from a
senior teaching course facilitator…” and “actually, this
method is famous in modern countries.” She realized the
current lifestyle that is based on ICT technology. She also
has the intention to teach her students about ICT based
knowledge when she said, “… my students need to know how
to use the ICT and could find the related information at
home”. Besides, proper teaching preparations could be seen
by the teacher. She stated some preparation and the science
FC lesson activities that she did such as “… yes, preparation
must be made” “… need to see any suitable topic…”, “at first
I‟ve asked my kids either they have the internet at home..”,
“It depends on the topic …sometime I brought my kids to the
ICT room,” “… They do group work… they make a short
presentation with their friends” and “I will check and add
some information on their presentation.” The teacher always
said, “I need to plan the material and run through the
materials before considering to be applied in my flipped
learning class.” It was observed that the teacher had prepared
the hands-on activity. The activities such as science project,
gallery walk, and peers discussion were chosen by the teacher
in teaching science using the flipped classroom approach.
As observed from the results, the teacher is a focal point
for 21st-century learning to happen. The teacher plays a vital
role as a mastermind on what will the learner's learn and
under what circumstance the learning activity will happen. A
proactive teacher has the initiative to search and explore new
teaching approach to convey the knowledge to the learners.
The teacher expressed the fond of using the flipped classroom
approach as it had benefited both the teacher and learners in
terms of flexible learning time, positive learning engagement,
and the adaptation of 21st-century learning skills. Instead of
deciding to apply the flipped classroom approach to promote
the 21st learning in a primary science learning session, the
aspect of activity selection that will be used in the flipped
classroom also needs to be considered. The teacher had
focused on the activity. It was realized that regardless of any
approach that planned to be used, the selection of activity is
crucial if one wants to promote active learning.
The second themes are the learner‟s background, teaching
and learning materials, and the school environment was
observed to be the assistance that helps the teacher
implementing the science FC as recorded in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2: Overview of primary science FC assistance.
Assistance
Learners‟
background
Learners‟ ICT
knowledge
Positive learning
attitude
Parents‟ support
Teaching and
Text books and
Learning
materials
additional
reference book
Online learning
materials
School
environment
ICT room
The classroom
Internet facility
Besides the teacher‟s background, a flipped learning
session also depends on the learner condition. Most children
had already exposed to the use of ICT especially at home
keen on using the ICT as a routine. In the same time, parents
play supporting roles in terms of giving guidance and
monitoring their child‟s learning progress. At home, learners
had chosen the textbook and online website as information
sources. At the school, a room equipped with ICT and the
Internet facility, and a conducive classroom have become the
contributor to the right school environment to promote the
21st – century learning. The following excerpts are about
what is the assistance, which helps the teacher to conduct the
flipped classroom:
The teacher mentioned that "kids nowadays… they were
born in this era of technology" when she reflected on her
students. She was grateful with her student's positive
learning as in "I am grateful that my students in that class
have good discipline in completing any task given such as
finding some information for learning." She added, "…Only
a few of them had complaints that they didn't have the phone
access at home… most got permitted by their parents" and "I
believe the parents gave permission and let them use phones
or other gadgets at home." Gadgets and Internet access
allowed students to access related information. The teacher
also makes use of the textbook and other learning materials
by mentioning "…Links are provided in our textbook... it's
already there for them" and "just Google and many learning
materials there… but need to choose". Additionally from her
statement "GB (the headmaster of the school) always
welcome the use of new way of teaching...", it is noticed that
the school administration gives teachers the authority to
choose the teaching approach that suits them. It was also
observed that the ICT room, well function Internet capability
and conducive classroom at the school also support the
teacher.
For the learners, proper monitoring from the teacher,
parents, and peers is essential to assist them learned using the
flipped classroom approach effectively. In a group activity,
group leaders need to be trained to check and help their group
members in doing any learning activity. The check and help
role by the group leaders had promoted a peer‟s monitoring
session. They could assist their group members to complete
and succeed any task in the learning activity. Instead of the
teacher as the primary facilitator, parents could also become
the second facilitator at home. Parents could also monitor
their child‟s learning in terms of guiding the ICT usage and as
a moral supporter.
The third theme in table 4.3 shows the challenges
experienced by the teacher while conducting FC in the
science lesson. The
challenges were divided into
three contributors, which is on
the facilities, teaching

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DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319
readiness and the learners‟ readiness.
Table 4.3: Overview on the challenges in implementing the
primary science FC.
Challenges
Facilities
limitation
ICT equipments
Maintenance cost
Teaching
readiness
Limited time on
teaching session
Schools‟ teaching
communities
Learners‟
readiness
Learners‟ abilities
differences
Learners‟ negative
perceptions
Learners‟ learning
habits
The challenges had become the factor in demotivating the
teacher and learners. The facilities limitation at school was
caused by the limitation on the usage of ICT equipment and
the maintenance cost for a malfunction LCD projectors.
Other than that, teaching via FC initially was also challenging
if some colleagues comment negative perceptions on FC. It
was also challenging to introduce a new way of delivering
science lesson to the learners at the beginning. Moreover,
learners‟ negative impressions about FC was due to the initial
shock when they have to go out of their learning comfort zone
and adapt to the FC learning style. The following excerpts
will highlight the challenges in conducting the FC approach:
The teacher mentioned that, they seldom use the ICT room
at school as in her reason, “we only have one ICT room,” “the
internet is okay, but not all PC can be used.” The teachers
have to make a booking to use the ICT room but priority to
the ICT class. In the beginning, the situation somehow
difficult her to teach her students especially the low achiever
students group to learn FC. The teacher agreed that she face
the difficulty at initial to change their traditional learning
style to a new learning style. Especially teaching in the
low-performance class, implementing FC is quite
challenging. She said that “…but different class has a
different kid‟s attitude, different level.. I need to adjust”
“..need more time and sometimes demotivating me” “I
shouldn‟t force them” “they felt using this way is difficult..
they want the older way of learning”. Apart from that, she
also faces negative perception from her colleagues. She said,
“I received critics from few colleagues,” “my friend believe
that not writing notes on a whiteboard means not delivering
proper teaching.”
It is implementing a new way of teaching approach always
not easy for the first time. Getting aware of the matters that
have to interfere with the flipped classroom session had
sparked the teacher to go over the problems. Instead of
making excuses that finally would demotivate her, the
teacher converts the shortcomings to an opportunity, to prove
that she could apply the 21st-century learning using the FC
approach. Becoming a proactive teacher, flexibility in
planning the learning session, positive thinking, willingness
to explore a new way of teaching, and working determination
are crucial factors. In the learners' perspective, scaffolding
the way of learning would allow them to get familiar and be
able to have an excellent 21st-century learning experience in
learning science using the FC approach.
B. Association of the Emerging Themes
As mentioned in the previous sections, the teacher had
chosen the flipped classroom approach to promote
21st-century learning in primary school science. The
following section will further discuss the relationship
between each theme.
Based on figure 4.2, each theme associate on each other in
term of what affecting others. It noticed that the affordance
could affect the assistance whereas the challenges could
affect both the affordances and also the assistance. In this
study, the affordances are the capability or quality that the
teacher and the learner already have. Meanwhile, the
assistance is the capability or condition that was equipped by
the teaching and learning settings. In other words, the
affordance that is personal learning capability could support
the assistance that is the outer learning capability or quality.
For example, a teacher can apply their deep understanding of
the pedagogical and technological knowledge to the learner‟s
learning in the classroom (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). The
other way round, the assistance could also help the
affordance. Meanwhile, both the inner and outer learning‟s
ability will be affected by the related challenges mentioned
earlier.
Figure 4.2 The associations of the emergent themes
Why is affordance associated to the assistance?
Each aspect would support and rely on each other. The
teacher should have sufficient knowledge regarding the
flipped classroom. In 21st century learning, the teacher is the
primary catalyst to conduct any successful teaching and
learning session. However, having a good teacher alone is
not enough if we neglect the other factors that could assist the
teacher‟s capabilities and initiatives. On the other hand, the
learners themselves were one of the catalysts in any
successful learning session if the teacher could engage with
them. It is because, a positive teacher-student relationship
would promote the mutual understanding, respect, obedience
and increase the learners‟ confidence level in a
teaching-learning session
(Hussain, Nawaz, Nasir, Kiani, &
Hussain, 2013).

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-8 Issue-6S3, September 2019
667
Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
& Sciences Publication
Retrieval Number: F11220986S319/2019©BEIESP
DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1122.0986S319
Why are the challenges affecting the affordance and
assistance?
In implementing the flipped classroom, it identified that
some challenges such as the facility, teaching readiness, and
learners‟ readiness could interfere with the affordance and
assistance. Even though the teacher is well experienced and
has a good competence teaching the primary school science,
some lacks regarding the teaching and learning limitation
could block the teacher‟s teaching potential. For example,
learners who did not have the interest will cause difficulties
learning using ICT (Ng Kee Chuan, 2014). The same
challenges would also intervene negatively the learners‟
capability to experience 21st-century learning activities.
This situation could become unsolved if the teacher did not
be able to solve the related problem that she was facing
alternatively.
IV. CONCLUSION
There are three themes related to promoting 21st-century
learning when teaching the science subject using the flipped
classroom approach. For the researcher, identifying these
three themes would give some additional insights on how a
primary school science teacher had implemented the flipped
classroom approach to promoting 21st-century learning
among the learners. By noticing the affordance, assistance,
and challenges, it is possible for implementing a new way of
teaching and learning approach in primary science education.
It depends on the teacher as a prime mover in any
teaching-learning activity. On the other hand, although the
flipped classroom is not famous among the primary teachers,
a positive notion to have the willingness and motivation to try
the FC approach needs to nurture among them. In the future,
we hope that implementing the primary science flipped
classroom in Malaysian education context could become
more familiar among the primary teachers. Many science
teachers, especially in primary school, will understand more
about the FC approach if more themes are continuously
studied. Some modifications could be studied and made on
implementing the FC in primary science education.
Furthermore, in-depth understanding regarding the findings
will help to overcome the barriers in primary science flipped
classroom implementation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study would never become a success without the
contribution of thoughts from all the informants. In return,
all the time and effort while participating in the study was
finally will benefit to the scholars. Last but not least are the
non-stop supports and supervision from the campus, and the
scholarship from the Ministry of Education. Knowledge is
for all to share and learn. I thanked all very much.
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AUTHORS PROFILE
Mohd Fadzly Wasriep has graduated Bachelor in 2013
on primary science education and Masters in 2016 on
science education. Now as a PhD Student who has an
interest in science education, especially on the primary
science education.
Denis Lajium holds a BSc with Education (Chemistry)
from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, MA (Science
Education) from Universiti Sains Malaysia and obtained
his Ph.D. at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He
is now a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology and
Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. His research
interest is mainly in chemistry education including chemistry learning
environment, learning of chemistry concepts, mental modelling and STEM
education. The main research methodologies are phenomenological study,
case study, and grounded-theory with the applications of NVIVO.