Motivating the New Generation: Using Flipped Classroom and ARCS Model to Enhance Block-Based Programming Education

This Research-to-Practice full paper presents an explorative study investigating the effects of flipped learning on the learning motivation of primary school students enrolled in a block-based programming course. Technology development has increased the importance of information technology-related competencies for the new generation. Programming skills are essential in various industries nowadays. Thus, programming education has become necessary to cultivate students' relevant abilities to meet the rapid pace of development. Programming learning encourages students to think logically and systematically, solve problems effectively, and develop computational thinking skills. However, learning programming is challenging for many students for different reasons, such as its inherent complexity, inadequate study methods, and pedagogical approaches unsuited to promote programming learning. Traditional teaching methods are often impersonalized and only suitable for some learning styles present in class. Moreover, the challenges encountered by the students as novice programmers are attributed to their low learning motivation. To learn to program, students must comprehend different syntactic conventions, complex instructions, and logical operators and actively engage in practical learning activities, often facing difficulties. This may reduce their learning motivation leading to failure and dropout. To accommodate different learning styles and increase students' motivation, this study employed the ARCS motivation model to design various innovative activities in a flipped classroom setting to increase students' motivation and improve teachers' teaching effectiveness. The study utilized a pretest-posttest method with two groups of grade five students to compare the effectiveness of teaching and learning between the flipped and traditional classroom students. The study's findings revealed that the flipped classroom experimental group showed significantly higher learning motivation than the students in the control group. Moreover, it was found that different flipped classroom activities, including the use of gamification, flipped videos, self-study, self-questioning, self-assessment, split programming tasks, group cooperation, and demonstration activities, had a positive influence on various sub-dimensions of the ARCS model, such as attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.