Abstract
The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of reverse education strategy and teaching skills on academic performance with regard to the mediating role of academic self-concept and creativity (case study: students of fine arts colleges in Baghdad province). The current research is applicable in terms of purpose, and descriptive-correlative in terms of its nature with path analysis approach. The statistical population consists of 275 students of fine arts colleges in Baghdad province; 165 of whom were selected by simple random sampling using Cochran's formula. Five standard questionnaires were used to collect research data: flipped learning by Bergman and Sams (2013), teaching skills by Rajabi (2015), academic self-concept by Chen and Thompson (2004), creativity by Torrance, and academic performance by Pham and Taylor (1999). The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, and the reliability of the instrument was also confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in a preliminary study; 0.78 for the reverse education questionnaire, 0.83 for teaching skill, 0.89 for academic self-concept, 0.91 for creativity, and 0.82 for academic performance. Data analysis was done using Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, and path analysis in SPSS and Lisrel statistical software. The results showed that the effect of reverse education and teaching skills on students' academic performance was positive and significant. It was also found that the mediating role of academic self-concept and creativity in influencing reverse education and teaching skills on students' academic performance was positive and significant.
Introduction
Today, the higher education system plays an important role in a person's life and future. Measuring the level of academic performance and identifying factors affecting it is one of the issues that has attracted the attention of psychologists, because achieving positive results in the field of education (by identifying and controlling the factors influencing academic performance) leads to the all-round progress of learners and society (Chow, 2018). Studies show that the flipped classroom is effective on the academic progress of students (Alyoussef, 2022). The flipped class is a learning model that turns traditional ideas about classroom activities and assignments upside down of "reversed" so that learners are first exposed to new material, then after the class time use it to discuss about new information, exercises, and practice learning (Ng, 2023). The history of studies shows that teaching skills are effective both in the academic performance of learners and in creating motivation and satisfaction, developing their personality, and developing their creativity (Eslamkhah et al, 2021; Kaleem & Vallow, 2018). In this regard, the importance and fruitfulness of better teaching and learning methods has always been desired by educational scientists and researchers (Che Leh, 2021). Teachers' teaching skills result in meaningful learning; That is, learning happens when it is completely meaningful for the learners, and learning will be meaningful if the learners, in addition to knowing the concepts and its value, personally participate in learning and feel the need for that subject (Mashayekh, 2017). Studies show that one of the factors affecting the academic performance of students is academic self-concept (Rahim Pur, 2015). Self-concept is made from experiences and from thinking about these experiences. People pay attention to the feedback they get from everyday activities to build their self-concept. This feedback shows their characteristics and preferences (Pinxten et al, 2015). Problem solving and creativity are at the highest level of human cognitive activities and are considered among the most valuable educational goals. In fact, the main goal of all educational institutions is to create problem-solving and creativity skills in learners. It is clear that in order to achieve these goals, a heavy responsibility is placed on the shoulders of educational centers, especially Education and Training office (Ashpaz, 2020). As a result, according to the discussed topics, the main goal of the current research is to answer the question: does the strategy of reverse education and teaching skills have an effect on academic performance according to the mediating role of academic self-concept and creativity of students of fine arts colleges in Baghdad province?
Theoretical Framework
Reverse training
Reverse education is an educational model in which learners learn educational content at home and through online or offline educational videos, and the teacher solves problems and answers the learners' questions and talks with them in the classroom (Yaghubi, 2022).
Teaching skills
The teaching process is a set of measured, logical, and continuous actions that are carried out by the teacher in order to present the lesson. The abilities that the teacher acquires to implement these actions are called teaching process skills (Zakernasab, 2017).
Academic Performance
Academic performance means the ability of students to answer questions related to the specific subject or topics foreseen for an educational course (Sepehvandi, 2017).
Academic self-concept
One of the dimensions of self-concept is academic self-concept, which refers to the mental representations of a person's abilities in school and educational environments, or representations related to academic progress. In other words, academic self-concept refers to a person's self-evaluation of the special academic field and abilities (Eslami et al., 2020).
Creativity
Creativity is a set of abilities and characteristics that lead to the production of unique works, the most important of these characteristics is divergent thinking (Rodrigues et al, 2019).
Mohammadi et al, (2023) investigated the evaluation of factors affecting the development of cloud-based accounting education and students' academic performance. This research specifies the degree of acceptance of using cloud computing methods in the teaching of accounting courses and its effectiveness in the education process by the students of Iranian universities through using the influence of external variables, i.e. human factors, economic and technological factors, and cultural and social factors on the development of cloud accounting education and academic performance of students. The research results indicate that human, economic and cultural factors have a significant positive effect on the development of cloud-based accounting education and students' academic performance.
Xu et al, (2023) investigated self-evaluation and academic progress in online and hybrid learning environments. The results showed the importance of self-evaluation to improve the academic performance of students in the field of STEM. It also showed that most studies adopted several self-assessment strategies during mixed phases. This study confirmed the effectiveness of self-assessment on academic achievement in online or hybrid learning. However, the present study also identified that research on children's and adolescents' self-assessment strategies in online learning contexts is urgently needed, and most of the existing research has not focused on the preparation and planning stages of self-assessment, which are very important.
Research methodology
The current research is applicable in terms of purpose, and descriptive-correlative in terms of its nature with path analysis approach. The statistical population consists of 275 students of fine arts colleges in Baghdad province; 165 of whom were selected by simple random sampling using Cochran's formula. Five standard questionnaires were used to collect research data: flipped learning by Bergman and Sams (2013), teaching skills by Rajabi (2015), academic self-concept by Chen and Thompson (2004), creativity by Torrance, and academic performance by Pham and Taylor (1999). The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, and the reliability of the instrument was also confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in a preliminary study; 0.78 for the reverse education questionnaire, 0.83 for teaching skill, 0.89 for academic self-concept, 0.91 for creativity, and 0.82 for academic performance.
Research findings
Data analysis was done using Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, and path analysis in SPSS and Lisrel statistical software. The results showed that the effect of reverse education and teaching skills on students' academic performance was positive and significant. It was also found that the mediating role of academic self-concept and creativity in influencing reverse education and teaching skills on students' academic performance was positive and significant.
Conclusion
The current research was conducted with the aim of the effect of reverse education strategy and teaching skills on academic performance, considering the mediating role of academic self-concept and creativity (case study: students of fine arts colleges in Baghdad province). The results of this research are in agreement with the results of Mohammadi et al, (2023), Xu et al, (2023), Dilekçi & Karatay (2023), Wang et al, (2022), Kazempour et al, (2022), Malekian & Pali (2022), Tong et al, (2022), Alyoussef (2022), Yaghubi (2022), Arabi makiabadi & Abbasiane (2021), Amiri (2021), Aziziyan Kohan et al, (2021), Lapitan et al, (2023), Ng (2023), Alqahtani et al, (2022), Forndran & Zacharias (2019), Khoshnud et al, (2021), Eslamkhah et al, (2021), Prakos et al, (2020), Gu et al, (2021), Cruz et al, (2022), and Mouri (2018). Alyoussef (2022) indicated the positive effect of adopting the flipped classroom to improve the learning of university students.
According to the results of the research, the following suggestions are provided:
In line with the obtained results, it is suggested that the principles and structure of reverse education and various teaching skills be taught to professors during meetings and educational workshops.