Flipped classroom experiences: Comparing undergraduate and postgraduate perceptions of self-regulated learning

Flipped learning requires learners to enhance their self-regulated learning (SRL) practices which offer a lens for conceptualising how learners regulate themselves (Zimmerman & Moylan, 2009). To date, studies on flipped learning are yet to explore whether SRL is developed to the same extent in learners at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. To address this gap, this study explored differences in SRL practice by learners in an applied linguistics course offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at an Australian university. The data collected from two focus group interviews (six undergraduate; six postgraduate) were analysed to investigate the experiences developing/SLR in these two cohorts. The findings show that while flipped learning provided learners with flexible learning opportunities to enhance their SLR, lack of teacher instruction associated with the flipped learning led the learners to believe that it was more time consuming and an increased workload; these perceptions, in turn, appeared to cancel the benefit associated with SLR practice. Nevertheless, postgraduate students tended to see the benefits of flipped learning more than their undergraduate counterparts. The limitations they perceived tended to relate more to the underdevelopment of their own self-regulated learning processes than to the flipped classroom method itself. These findings may inform practitioners' implementation of a flexible instructional approach in terms of learners' perceptions of the flipped learning model.