In the flipped classroom, students engage in preparatory activities to study the course materials prior to attending teacher-guided sessions. Students’ success in the flipped classroom is directly related to their preparation and students tend to change their preparation activity over time. Few studies have investigated why students change their preparation activity. Therefore, we address this gap by first clustering university students (N = 174) enrolled in a flipped course for the first time based on their preparatory activities at three time points. We identified distinct preparatory activity patterns by computing changes in cluster membership. Next, we compared students’ preparatory activity patterns in course performance, motivation, and self-regulation. The temporal investigation of activity patterns provided important insights into how preparation (or lack thereof) at different phases relates to course performance. Intensive preparation only at the beginning of the course was related to significantly worse course performance whereas preparation only in the middle of the course was related to higher course performance. Students who performed intensively during the course had significantly higher course performance, higher intrinsic motivation at the beginning, and higher self-regulation (in particular, time management) in the middle of the course than students showing lower activity during preparation. Our findings provide important implications for future research and educational practice, particularly for students transitioning to flipped classroom learning for the first time.

在翻转课堂中，学生在参加教师指导的课程之前先进行准备活动，学习课程材料。学生在翻转课堂中的成功与他们的准备直接相关，并且学生往往会随着时间的推移改变他们的准备活动。很少有研究调查学生改变准备活动的原因。因此，我们通过 首先根据三个时间点的准备活动对首次参加翻转课程的大学生（N = 174）进行聚类来解决这一差距。我们通过计算集群成员资格的变化来识别不同的准备活动模式。接下来，我们比较了学生在课程表现、动机和自我调节方面的准备活动模式。对活动模式的时间调查提供了重要的见解，了解不同阶段的准备（或缺乏准备）与课程表现的关系。仅在课程开始时进行强化准备与课程表现明显较差有关，而仅在课程中期进行准备则与较高的课程表现有关。与在准备期间活动较少的学生相比，在课程期间表现密集的学生在课程开始时的课程表现、内在动机和中间的自我调节（特别是时间管理）都明显更高。我们的研究结果为未来的研究和教育实践提供了重要的启示，特别是对于第一次过渡到翻转课堂学习的学生。