Flipped classroom and digitization: an inductive study on the learning framework for 21st century skill acquisition
Malini Mittal Bishnoi
Abstract
While increasingly demands have been made on Higher Education Institutions for revamping \ncurriculum designs and instructional pedagogies to adapt to the 21st century digitized learning and \nskill environment, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored this adaption as the singular solution to \nmaintain the learning continuum. The inverted or flipped classroom has emerged as an enabling \nlearning framework offering a convergence of technological advancements with active and \ncollaborative learning. This study investigates the correlation between the flipped learning pedagogy \nin higher education and the acquisition of 21st century skills in the current digitized environment to \nmeet Industry 4.0 readiness landscape. Primary data for this study was collected using a scientifically \ndeployed mixed methods survey research and in-depth interviews from undergraduate students across \nuniversities to get their input on what they experienced and perceived as learners through the \nclassroom flip experience. Until today, there has been lack of focus on Higher Education in the literature \non an effective pedagogy for cultivating 21st century skills. This is an original research work which \npresents a holistic view of what elements are offered by ‘flipped learning’ as key to the development \nof 21st century skills and competences considering the demands of the fourth industrial revolution (IR \n4.0) from Higher Education Institutions, for creation of a job resilient workforce. The findings of the \nstudy showed that the flipped classroom model was experientially and perceptibly preferred by \nundergraduates for the acquisition of 21st century skills and competencies needed for industry 4.0 \nreadiness amongst other reasons. The results of this study have implications for students, faculty and \nhigher education institutions.