Georgia Southern University College of Education Associate Professor Jackie Kim, Ed.D., was recently awarded an Arthur M. Gignilliat Jr. Research 2018 Fellowship. The fund supports a full-time faculty member based on the Armstrong Campus in Savannah to conduct research while advancing scholarly activities and enhancing professional development.

Over the summer Kim will apply the fund toward her research project, “Flipping the Classroom Using Instructional Technology in Teacher Education,” which will compare how two different learning techniques impact the experiences of pre-service education students, or teacher candidates, in the flipped learning context.

The flipped classroom model reverses the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content outside of the classroom, often using technologies such as online lectures and discussions. Kim’s research will compare the differences between pre-service teachers who utilize course readings and those who incorporate video lectures for learning effectiveness.

“The flipped classroom promotes a student-centered learning environment in which students are actively engaging themselves in higher-order thinking and taking charge of their own learning,” said Kim. “This research will help me to gain insight on how to increase students’ engagement and ownership of learning in the classroom.”

To gather data, Kim will survey current undergraduate and graduate students and create a case study of each experience. The project will serve as an extension of a pilot study she completed on flipped learning, in which teacher candidates utilized only readings from course textbooks to provide an opportunity for students to gain exposure to the material prior to class activities. The results from the pilot study will serve as a basis for her summer research.

“I believe that reflecting upon and assessing one’s own teaching methods are key to becoming a better teacher,” said Kim. “This research will broaden my area of expertise in designing the flipped classroom model in different contexts, such as pre-service teacher education and higher education.”

Kim anticipates finalizing research by the end of 2018, and sharing her insights with the Georgia Southern community during the 2019 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons Conference and the University System of Georgia Teaching and Learning Conference.

The Arthur M. Gignilliat Jr. Research Fellowship was established on the Armstrong Campus in 1997 in honor of the Distinguished Alumni Award recipient who aimed to maintain a tradition of excellence by attracting and honoring outstanding faculty members who, in turn, attract outstanding students. Kim is the first COE faculty to receive the fellowship since its inception.

“In addition to being humbled by my fellowship selection, I am motivated to work harder as a scholar and support my colleagues so we can grow together as a productive, scholarly community,” said Kim.