The flipped classroom: A meta-analysis of effects on student performance across disciplines and education levels

The Flipped Classroom design has arguably revolutionized teaching across the globe. In this article we report the first comprehensive meta-analysis of its effects on student performance, relative to traditional teaching models, across disciplines and education level. We included 198 studies comprising 33,678 students in our meta-analysis. There were 174 studies conducted at the tertiary level, 21 at secondary, and three at primary school level. Overall, the flipped classroom had a moderate positive effect (g = .50) on student performance. The flipped classroom was beneficial regardless of discipline, with effect sizes ranging from weak (i.e., for IT, g = 0.30; k = 14) to strong (i.e., for humanities, g = 0.98; k = 34). Testing of other moderators relating to group sizes, in-class activities, pre-class testing, and the sophistication of a flipped classroom design provide evidence to suggest that the primary contributing factor to the flipped classroom effect is the opportunity it provides for structured, active learning and problem-solving.