Blended Learning, Flipped Classroom, and Peer Teaching as a Combination to Meet the Increasing Diversity in Higher Education

Abstract

Even with increasing heterogeneity, all students should have the opportunity to learn optimally through the design of the teaching-learning environment. Studies suggest that a social learning situation, such as peer teaching in face-to-face courses, leads to increased attendance, deeper content processing, and higher scores on final papers. Here we investigate whether peer teaching reduces procrastination in blended learning within a flipped classroom design, affects the quality of submitted application assignments during the semester, and influences scores on the final exam (research purpose). The study involved 11 statistics courses with the same content, comprising a total of 268 students, five of which utilized peer teaching and six did not. In this field experiment, which employed empirical-analytical university didactics and multiple measurements, the method varied by assigning the application tasks to be completed either individually or in groups of three throughout the semester. It’s worth noting that a significant portion of the student population included individuals who were already engaged in education, had familial responsibilities, work commitments, or health challenges in addition to their studies. The study’s central finding indicated that peer teaching reduced academic procrastination in blended learning combined with a flipped classroom design. However, it did not significantly impact the quality of submitted application assignments or the scores on the final exam. Additionally, the study revealed a positive correlation between the timely submission of assignments (indicating an absence of procrastination) and the quality of the submitted assignments, as well as individual scores in the final test.