Flipped Classroom Combined with Drama in Education: A Case Study in a Greek Primary School

In recent years, distance learning has become a necessity. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that traditional teaching methods were not enough to support the needs that arose in education. Many schools worldwide were forced to close for long periods of time while they tried to find solutions to continue providing education opportunities during the pandemic. In this context, distance education was a unique option with several variations (Manousou et al., 2021).

School distance education during the pandemic made -among others- use of blended learning approaches and tools, one of which is flipped classroom. Flipped classroom transforms the traditional classroom as face-to-face teaching and learning is transferred to an online environment, making pupils responsible for their own learning. However, the lack of general preparedness of the teachers and schools has raised pedagogical concerns about the implementation of distance education practices. According to Tait (2021), for example, the quality of the remote education provided was often poor.

In this context, the current case study was planned, in search of a mixed methodology that could strengthen distance learning with the active participation of students in experiential face-to-face explorations. The search for a complementary methodology that focuses on the process and experiences of the pupils led to drama. Drama, due to its nature, can effectively support the flipped classroom with a variety of collaborative activities carried out inside the classroom.

At this point, it is important to make the distinction between research design and educational methods. Research methods refer to how the study was conducted, while educational methods relate to the learning design of the flipped classroom. So, the research method used is case study, while the educational methodologies used are flipped classroom and drama in education.

Therefore, the objective of this study and the upcoming research is to explore the implementation of flipped classroom combined with drama in education. The main research question guiding this study is: How and why can flipped classroom combined with drama be used in education?

The article begins with a literature review of research related to the flipped classroom. This is followed by the research methodology part that explains the research conducted with students in a primary school in Greece as a case study. Then, the qualitative data obtained from the case study are analysed and discussed. Finally, some concluding remarks and suggestions for future research are provided.

This paper is about case study research. Case study explores empirically a contemporary phenomenon in real-life context using various sources of evidence (Yin, 2009 as cited in Robson & McCartan, 2016, p. 150). Case studies can lead to both theory generation and testing (Bryman, 2008). Very often, there is a case study plan (Mills et al., 2017; Robson & McCartan, 2016), and although if it is difficult sometimes, pilot testing is also possible in case studies to offer opportunities for research design enhancement (Robson & McCartan, 2016). To approach the research question, which is descriptive, it was important to study the process of implementing the suggested mixed methodology to one or more groups of students as well as to understand the participants’ perception of this. Mills et al. (2017) recommended in this case, the case study. The case study plan of this study is presented below as suggested by Mills et al. (2017):

Setting the purpose of the study

The implementation of the flipped classroom took place over a period of 1 week in December 2022 in a primary school in Crete. The small number of informants makes generalisation almost impossible, although this is common for case studies (Robson & McCartan, 2016). The initial case study design was piloted with one group of students and then tested with another group (10 hr per group in the context of a subject entitled ‘Skills Workshops’ in primary school). During the pilot study, some design changes were made and implemented in the second group. These changes mainly involved some technical adjustments to the original design.

A researcher had the role of the teacher working with the two groups having the opportunity to guide, to intervene, and to observe and record the improvement of the learning process (Robson & McCartan, 2016). The teachers in charge of the classes throughout the school year were present and had the role of two ‘critical friends’.

The informants of this study were students of two different fifth grade classes (11 years old) in a public 6-grade primary school in Crete. The students had no previous experience in drama and little experience in distance learning during the COVID-19 outbreak. The first group consisted of 14 students (7 girls and 7 boys), and the second group consisted of 12 students (7 girls and 5 boys). The pilot study was applied to the first group in order to provide feedback and make necessary improvements. In this group, all students had access to the internet except one who was given printed materials. All students were present on the first 2 days of the pilot survey, 12 students were present on the third day of the survey and 13 students were present on the fourth and fifth days. The second group was the one in which the main survey was conducted. All students in this group had access to the internet. All students were present on the first day and 11 students on the following days, except on the third day when 10 students participated. It is important to mention that both the pilot and the main survey were conducted in the same week, and the results were obtained from both groups. At the end of the week, a focus group was held with pupils participating in a reflective discussion.

Data collection was based on five different tools: observations and notes of the researcher, observations of two critical friends/educators of the two groups, visual material (photographs), reflection sheets, and reflective discussion. The researcher’s participant observations were recorded every day during and after the implementation of the research to create a transparent way of reflecting on the research questions. The field notes include descriptive information and reflective information, following the recommendations of Mills et al. (2017). The observations of the two critical friends were made every day during and after the sessions. A researcher had shared the research questions with them. Visual material was taken during each session. At the end of every session, the participants were given reflection sheets made by the researcher with questions based on what they studied at home and what they experienced in the class. Finally, at the end of the five—day implementation, there was a reflective discussion with all the students, during which they had an additional opportunity to evaluate their experience and make connections between what they studied at home and what they were doing in the class. During this discussion, it was of great importance that the students remain critical of the whole experience. The qualitative data were analysed by thematic analysis by hand due to their volume.

In-class activities

Drama was used during the face-to-face stage of the flipped classroom with active involvement of the students in the learning process taking place in their classroom. The initial pedagogical design of the drama process was based on the principles and guidelines for teachers and students with little experience in drama (Avdi & Chatzigeorgiou, 2007; Fleming, 1996; Woolland, 1996). The participants’ evaluation of the process was based on research suggestions such as O’Neil and Lambert (1982) and Morgan and Saxton (1987). The structure of the drama implemented in the classroom is presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Drama planning

Introduction	Warm-up activities
Questions for exploration	What does climate change stand for us? Why is that something that should concern us?
	What is our attitude towards the environment? To what extent can we adopt measures to protect the environment?
Choosing stimulus and creating pre-text	Teacher in role, students in role Stimulus: a lost beach
Choosing roles	Students’ roles: village citizens
	Teacher’s role: old woman, citizen of the village
Creating episodes	Use of various techniques/conventions (Neelands, 1998)

Each day began with warm-up activities, and then episodes were created using various drama conventions (Neelands, 1990, 1998). During the one-week intervention, the following activities/conventions were used (Figure 1):

Whole-group role play

Teacher-in-role

Interviews-interrogations

Mantle of the expert

Still image

Meetings

Hot-seating

Conscience alley

Figure 1.

Drama activities/conventions.

At the end of each day, students were given a reflection sheet. Students were given explanations or clarifications if needed. In this way, they had the opportunity to evaluate their participation each day, make connections between what they were asked to study at home and what they did in class (flipped classroom), while being critical and reflective towards their learning process.

In this case study, a mixed pedagogical methodology was used based on the principles of flipped classroom combined with drama in education as presented in Table 4.

One of the main findings of the implementation was the students’ interest and enthusiasm throughout the whole process. The pupils were particularly interested in what was happening in the classroom as their answers in several questions focused on their experience during drama. They were also curious to interact with the online educational material at first, yet there was observed a reduced interest in the activities after class. The reasons of the low participation might be the following:

Microsoft Sway provides a linear presentation of the educational material, so this may deprive the educational material of the element of surprise.

Another finding that emerged from our research was the students’ cooperation in parallel with individualized study. On the one hand, distance education material encourages and promotes students’ metacognitive skills like self—regulation and self—assessment. Therefore, the students become responsible for their learning. On the other hand, drama encourages group interaction through the participation in the episodes where the students and their contribution have a catalytic role. A key point to this process is the high degree of quality and cohesion between what the students studied at home, so the content of the educational material, its structure, its characteristic, as well as the content, and the activities chosen in the drama context at school.

Due to this experiential nature, drama in education is considered a methodology, which can effectively complement the flipped classroom (Papadimitriou et al., 2017). The students in our research were aware that the two methodologies supported them effectively to study and approach the issue of climate change. They were also able to explain how each methodology helped them. According to them, they studied data at home, which helped them understand the problem of climate change, while at school, they used these data to shape the drama process and deepen their understanding. They were also able to distinguish what they studied at home and what was the purpose of further exploration at school, focusing on the online material as a central part of the flipped classroom methodology and on play and exploration as a key element for drama. An initial awareness of the way they learned can therefore be observed a basic characteristic of metacognition (Papaleontiou-Louka, 2002) and the main focus of distance education according to Lionarakis (2005). The above findings lead to the conclusion that the two methodologies combined can provide opportunities for active involvement in the learning process and development of metacognitive skills, such as reflection and self-regulation (Matsaggouras, 2007). Finally, the two methodologies combined encourage exploration, reflection, engagement and personal involvement. Apart from that, they create opportunities for collaboration and development of problem-solving skills, which are essential for the development of critical thinking.

Apart from metacognitive skills, the two methodologies can offer opportunities for the development of digital skills, creative and critical thinking. More specifically, the development of digital skills is encouraged and promoted through the methodology of the flipped classroom and the online material that was appropriately developed and used having specific characteristics necessary for quality distance education (Lionarakis, 2001). The students had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with various digital tools, they expressed themselves creatively using them, they developed their critical thinking through reflective activities, and this is also supported by other research on flipped classroom (Avery et al., 2018; Bishnoi, 2020; Fung et al., 2022; Sakulprasertsri, 2017).

In this context, the students being in a role realized the responsibility they bore for the environmental problem they were facing in the context of the scenario unfolding in the drama due to their personal involvement, which has been mentioned by Chawla (2008).

Another finding that is highlighted during the data analysis is the understanding of the environmental problem the students were facing while in role. The data analysis also indicates that students were able to use information from the online material they were studying at home in their attempt to explain the problem they were facing and argue about it in class. This was observed and reported by the teachers/critical friends, the teacher/researcher and also by the students themselves during the reflective discussion at the end of the five days’ work. This finding is considered important as according to Lewis et al. (2019 as cited in Daskolia, 2020), there is a low level of understanding and acceptance of climate change in the general population. However, this understanding can lay the foundations for climate literacy, which should be a priority for school education (Piliouras et al., 2021). Pupils’ understanding in the context of this research is the foundation for climate literacy and is an added value for the two methodologies combined. Yet, there is a need for further research, for example, with learning analytics from the platform, in order to obtain robust evidence that apart from the very positive view of the stakeholders on the combination of the two pedagogical methodologies, there have in fact been significant learning outcomes in terms of targeting education for sustainable development.

The results of the research implementation are summarized in Table 5. Overall, they are considered positive and provide an answer to the key research question as mentioned above.

The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of the flipped classroom and drama in the context of environmental education. In this study, students interacted with the designed online material at home, while the classroom drama format was used for face-to-face lessons. Environmental education provided content with problems that are difficult to answer and problems that urgently need solutions.

This study showed that both, flipped classroom and drama, promote active learning in different ways. The flipped classroom encourages students to engage with content before and after class, while drama form requires participation and interaction in classroom, leading to deeper cognitive and emotional involvement.

This study also responds to pedagogical concerns about the implementation of distance education practices. More specifically, it proposes the use of West and Lionarakis’ (Lionarakis, 2001) typology of online activities in the context of digital learning materials, which can ensure their pedagogical quality. More specifically, appropriately designed and developed for distance education materials as part of the flipped classroom approach plays a catalytic role in presenting and studying new content to students in a format that intrigues them to explore it at their own pace. Moreover, it creates favourable learning conditions with multiple representations and the use of a variety of digital applications and tools to better understand the topics explored and to cultivate metacognitive skills such as self-regulation, self-control and self-assessment. It is therefore vital to ensure that students are engaged with the online material. The learning design, the design of online activity play, even the choice of digital tools, and content set up play a crucial role in engaging students.

Our research revealed that students had low interaction with the digital educational material. It is suggested, in addition to using West and Lionarakis’ typology (Lionarakis, 2001), to inform students beforehand about the important role of the teaching material and to remind them whenever necessary during the implementation of the flipped classroom. What is needed when designing educational material is to take into account the needs, preferences and interests of specific students, in order to use them to produce an educational material that is specifically designed for them and therefore more attractive to them in order to seek greater engagement and interaction with it.

This study also indicates that in drama sessions students are offered the chance to collaborate and communicate, exploring complex content like environmental issues. Time in school is devoted to experiential learning, and drama appears to be an effective option for addressing and exploring social issues approached in the context of different views and interests. However, applying drama to pupils with little or no experience can be challenging. Therefore, it is recommended that the pedagogical design of the drama process is based on principles and guidelines for students.

This study results in a blended methodology using distance education strategies and tools, as well as drama form to raise environmental awareness and climate literacy. The methodological choice of this study seems an ideal approach in environmental education for promoting digital, soft (e.g., communication, collaboration, and critical thinking), and green skills (e.g. environmental awareness), which is a big challenge for education right now (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Skills developed in the context of flipped classroom.

Overall, flipped classroom and drama seemed to ‘work ideally in a complementary way as they embrace the goal of a student-centered educational process with active participation of learners and the teacher who guides the process’ (Papadimitriou et al., 2017, p. 2).