Table 4.

Students’ perceptions of FC, including best and most difficult features (N = 231)

Theme	Examples of students’ comments	No. of similar responses
Best features of FC
The content of the discussion was more comprehensive and logical	Students prepared the presentation as required by the teacher, covering all aspects of content from basic knowledge, and experimental operations to experiment results. The discussion was more comprehensive and logical	82/231
Pre-class learning requirements were clearer and students were better prepared	The teacher gave clear questions and presentation requirements before class, and most of the students were well prepared	43/231
Group members undertook different pre-class preparation work with less pressure	Before class, students in the experiment operation group can choose to prepare different presentation contents, which reduces the learning pressure	43/231
Most difficult features of FC
The engagement of students in the presentation and discussion sessions was relatively low	When one student was presenting, other students were preparing their own presentations, and the learning effect was not good Students rarely asked questions and no real group discussions occurred	85/231
The preparation task before class was mostly memorization, which was not very helpful to the experiment	I felt like I spent a lot of time memorizing knowledge before class but still could not apply it well in the experiment	59/231
The form of presentation and discussion is inflexible and cannot effectively stimulate interest in learning	At the presentation and discussion session, I spent most of the time listening to other students or teachers. A little boring, and sometimes I couldn't concentrate The presentation and discussion session should be more flexible, allowing students to discuss freely	40/231