Action Research On The Applicability Of "Flip Classroom" In The Teaching Of Moral Education In Primary Schools In China

Flipped classroom is a new concept in the field of education in this years. This new form of teaching has got more and more attention by education with the further promotion of information technology. The current studies concern more on two parts, one is the development of teaching resources and platforms of information technology in the flipped classroom, the other is about the application of flipped classroom in chinese, mathematics and other subjects,together appraising its teaching effects in children's knowledge leaning. Only a few researches consider about flipped classroom in moral education, however,most of them limit themselves in high schools, it's rare for primary schools. So it is a question that whether flipped classroom can be used in moral education,especially in character class in primary schools. This study mainly uses action research methods to explore this issue. Researcher has conducted two rounds of action in two primary schools (B and Y)in Nanjing, which include four times attempts of flipped classroom in class A, class C and class D.From these attempts and the followed evaluation and rethinking, this study intends to answer and reinterpret the idea of "flip" in character class.Overall, there are many studies about the flipped classroom at home and in abroad. In this studies, most scholars agree that flipped classroom possesses much value for education innovation,and they also admit that this new form of teaching could benefit student's moral development. Based on these thinking, this study determines the main hypothesis, that is flipped classroom can be applied to character teaching in primary school. In order to test this hypothesis. Research tries to flip the lesson "I sent a flower to teacher"(from "character and social", the second term of grade three) in the first action research. After the evaluation and reflection this first attempt, researcher finds: If we only treat flipped classroom as a teaching form and apply it with the traditional thinking like in many knowledge-learning subjects, it will create little improvements in student's moral development, and also cannot sufficiently prove the hypothesis. This confusion causes researcher to rethink what the character class could flip. On the basis of analyzing moral and moral education's purpose, together with the consideration of character curriculum's nature, content, aim and the current definition of character class by educators, this research believes that flipped classroom can not be just thought as a teaching form for character class, it should be the flipping of life rather than the overturning of several teaching steps. The purpose of flipping life is to change the lives of children from isolated, separate, unconscious into the holistic, continuous, practical and meaningful.With this new understanding, researcher stars to carry out the second round action with the cooperation of F teacher which works in Y school. This time we totally conduct three times of flipped classroom in character class, namely on the basis of life experience, practical investigation and the roles' changing. These three attempt all verify the flipped classroom which takes life as the object can fully promote the development of children's moral knowledge understanding, moral reflection, moral emotion and moral life experience. Finally, through reflecting this two rounds of action, researcher try to offer some advice for teachers about applying the flipped classroom in character class in primary school, as well as thinking of its limitation rationally.There are four conclusions in this study. Firstly, applying the flipped classroom which takes life as the object can effectively promote the development of students' moral knowledge understanding, moral reflection, moral emotion and moral life experience. Therefore, flipped classroom can be applied in character class in primary school. Secondly, we should make clear that the object of flipping in character class is life, which include flipping the students' natural life before class into the living life under teachers' consciously instruction, flipping the students' isolated life in class and out of class into continuous life, flipping the students' "basic teaching+meaning promotion" life in class into deep teaching-learning life. Thirdly, when in specific application of flipped classroom in character curriculum, teachers need to remind students of reflection in experience life and instruct them to understand the moral significance of life events before the class.when in class,teachers also should focus on the continuity of students' development, and try to deepen the interaction between teachers and students. After the class, teachers should encourage students to practise what they have learned in the real life and instruct them to relate the learned knowledge with the social life and later study. Finally, flipped classroom also has its limitation in teaching,which required educators to notice when used it in character class. Educators should not rely too much on information technology in teaching. they also can not overinstruct students' life before class and should keep the deep teaching-learning in moderation.