“EVALUACIÓN DEL CUMPLIMIENTO DE OBJETIVOS Y COMPROBACIÓN DE HIPÓTESIS”

The current study constitutes a significant contribution to practice in the EFL field. Flipping could potentially be adopted as an instructional model in HEIs in Oman and in similar educational settings such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where educators’ concern is to motivate their students’ interest in different courses, engage them actively in the learning process, and enhance their learning outcomes. Firstly, the study provides a holistic understanding of the way flipped writing instruction boosts students’ four engagement dimensions. At the behavioural level, students’ effort, concentration, persistence, communication and collaboration, and attitude to class attendance improved. Students also experienced cognitive

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growth and developed self-regulation learning strategies and meta-cognitive awareness. Similarly, flipped instruction influenced students’ emotional engagement, as it triggered positive emotions such as contentment and increased interest in the subject. Furthermore, flipping affected students’ agentic engagement, as their questioning ability, autonomy and capacity to express their opinions evolved. This holistic understanding helps educators to make informed instructional decisions that consider these four aspects of engagement rather than focus solely on students’ observed behaviours.

Secondly, the literature review indicated that a design model for a flipped writing classroom does not exist. Therefore, this study contributes practicable and transferable knowledge to similar educational settings. It provides EFL instructors with a task-based flipped classroom model which is grounded in cognitivist and constructivist learning theories (Ahmed, 2016; Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Brame, 2013), inspired by Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domains, and supported by instructional technologies that facilitate cooperative learning and learner-centred pedagogies (Graham, 2006; Graham & Dziuban, 2008). This instructional model challenges test- centred curricula which encourage rote-teaching instead of developing students’ higher cognitive capacities (Ahlquist, 2003; Wasserberg & Rottman, 2016). Consequently, the findings are particularly relevant to educators who embrace similar theories and adopt similar pedagogical choices in their classes.

Conversely, Nguyena et al. (2006) argue that educators should implement Western pedagogies with great caution, since cultural clashes and incongruities might arise due to their incompatibility with the host culture. Lane-Kelso (2014) points out that flipping could provide a bridge to unfamiliar teaching strategies for traditional conservative educational environments such as Oman. At the same time, however, there could be a high level of resistance to this

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Western teaching approach in Oman, where students lack the self-dependence flipped learning requires, as Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012) indicate. This has implications for teachers operating in such educational contexts. According to Muldrow (2013), those teachers should provide students with an incentive to engage their cooperation and guarantee their compliance with the method. Incentives increase students’ motivation and consequently affect their emotional engagement positively. Moreover, educators should allow students a period of adjustment to this teaching approach and not be discouraged by students’ initial resistance.

Thirdly, although previous studies conducted by Khalil (2005) and Mathew et al. (2013) in the context of Oman indicated that male and female students engaged in EFL courses differently, this study’s findings were different. It was revealed that engagement in the flipped class was dependent on individual students’ capacities and the study skills they had developed prior to the flipped learning experience rather than on their gender. This suggests that educators operating in co-educational and single-sex environments could adopt flipping as a model of instruction while ensuring that their students are engaged fairly in the course. This is particularly relevant in Oman, where male-female interaction is limited and utilising a large amount of group work that involves members from different genders, as is the case in a flipped class, could be problematic.

It should also be noted that educators, either in Oman or in similar contexts, should be aware of the correlation between age and students’ behavioural engagement. Compared to their younger counterparts, adult students could be more behaviourally engaged due to their high level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in learning, as Okuniewski (2014), Pfenninger and Singleton (2016) and Xu and Rod (2015) indicate. Merriam and Bierema (2013) argue that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation boost students’ behavioural engagement. Thus, the findings have implications for the teaching of adult learners who could benefit from being taught in a flipped

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class by being more behaviourally engaged; however, the findings also have implications for the teaching of younger students. It is important for instructors to explain the potential benefits of the flipped instructional model to students and to provide them with a motive to comply with its rules and requirements.

Furthermore, there are two major factors which educators should consider carefully before applying this novel instructional approach in the Omani context, especially in GFP courses. Firstly, the study revealed a lower level of engagement among students whose linguistic skills are average and/or poor. This has implications for the implementation of flipping with beginner and elementary level students, who could experience challenges in coping with this course design. With the existing difficulties that students face in a writing course, flipping could be counterproductive and could lead to disengagement (Moran, 2014). Caution should also be exercised when teaching mixed-ability classes since low-performing students could be disadvantaged in a flipped classroom. Secondly, it is important for EFL educators to take into account students’ knowledge of and access to technology before deciding to integrate flipping in their writing classes. Lock (2015) and Loucky (2017) warn that the utilisation of complex, unfamiliar and inaccessible technological tools could be unfavourable to some students. Consequently, the study’s findings have direct implications for flipped writing course design, particularly for the learning tools instructors employ. Such tools should be familiar, user-friendly and, most importantly, accessible, given that most GFP students in Oman live in university dormitories which may not be equipped with the required technological facilities to complete the pre-class learning tasks.

Finally, although the study focused on a standalone flipped EFL writing course, the study also has implications for integrated skills courses. Partial flipping could be utilised to teach the

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writing portion of an integrated lesson while still taking the abovementioned success factorsinto consideration.