Taken from:

http://www.inderscience.com/info/ingeneral/cfp.php?id=2324

A regular classroom is a physical space where students receive live instruction from the teacher. It has been a criticism for a long time that students in a regular teacher-dominated classroom often behave as passive information receivers rather than active knowledge constructors. After class, students often complete homework in the form of exercises to reiterate or reflect on what they have learned in the classroom.

Comparatively, the instructional process in a flipped classroom environment is different. The flipped classroom is a recently adopted pedagogical approach in which instructional lectures and homework activities are reversed. Students are required to watch pre-recorded video lectures at home before a class session while in-class activities focus on exercises, projects or discussions. By following the flipped classroom approach, it is expected that students become more active and responsible for their learning, and hence the learning outcomes are improved.

In recent years, the flipped classroom approach has attracted much attention from educators, and an increasing number of teachers are eager to explore this approach in an attempt to motivate students, improve the learning process and promote students’ learning outcomes. However, there are many challenges associated with this approach. For instance, teachers often have to spend much time preparing instructional videos before class, and must also be competent with the new role of being facilitators. In addition, students must be able to access the videos conveniently without technical difficulties.

A limited number of empirical studies in this area have been published in international journals. This special issue aims to collect and publish exemplary case studies and empirical research studies on using the flipped classroom approach to improve learning processes and outcomes. Research articles and conceptual papers related to using flipped classrooms to improve teaching and learning and creating technology-supported flipped classroom environments are welcome.