On the "Flipped" Side!
Helping to expand academic boundaries.
A bright future!
More class time can be spent on problem solving & clarification.
- Teachers spend less time delivering content and more time helping them understand content (Bergman, p. 6).
- Teachers serve as coaches and advisors (EDUCAUSE, p. 1).
- More time for "labs, projects and experiments" (TechSmith, p. 2).
- Teachers can devote more time to students' needs (Papastathis).
Students can work at a flexible pace.
- Students can work on different things at different times (Bergman, p. 6).
- Students can keep up with work from home (Fulton, p. 19).
- Students can rewind, review, and skip sections they know (EDUCAUSE, p. 1).
- Helps foster “learners who can learn for themselves and by themselves” (Sams).
Fosters greater student responsibility for their own learning.
- Homework now has value. Skipping homework is like skipping class (Bergman, p. 7).
- Teaching students how to become independent learners. "Learners who can learn for themselves, by themselves."- Aaron Sams (Fulton).
- Students are no longer able to fade into the crowd while the teacher lectures (Papastathis).
Encourages more effective use of class time.
- Can demonstrate concepts quickly via a video that would have previously taken a whole class (Fulton, p. 20).
- Class time can be spent discovering and clearing up errors in thinking (EDUCAUSE, p. 2).
Increases student performance.
- Some schools report increased ACT and comprehensive assessment scores (Fulton, p. 20).
- Students who fall below a certain threshold of proficiency can be asked to attend mandatory study halls or continue reviewing until they have mastered the material (Fulton, p. 20).
After reading material written about this technique and watching videos on the topic, we are very excited about its potential. As educators we are always searching for new ways to improve our students learning abilities and make learning more interactive, and by flipping our classrooms we are one step closer to this goal.
Some things to consider...
Teachers face a heavy initial work load to create materials.
- Teachers may need to learn new skills to create materials for the classroom (EDUCAUSE, p. 2).
- Teachers may have to create many new materials (EDUCAUSE, p. 2).
- Begin adapting a unit or a few lessons rather than the entire year of material at once.
Students may lack access to technology.
- Some teachers report having to find resources such as computers for their classrooms (Butrymowicz).
- Since flipped classrooms are technology heavy, low-income students might be left behind and the achievement gap widened (Butrymowicz).
- Students may not have equipment or access to high-speed Internet or quick streaming of videos (EDUCAUSE, p. 2).
- In some poorer schools, such as Westside High in Macon , GA, more than half of the students are low income (Butrymowicz).
- It is suggested that teachers restructure their school day to begin earlier or end later to allow students who do not have the technology at home to watch video lectures to do so at school (Bergman & Sams).
Students may not watch the video.
- Can choose several ways to handle this: "allow them to watch it in the corner; pair the student up with another; stand your ground and deliver consequence" (TechSmith, p. 2).
- Requre that students take notes, copy examples and definitions, and other tasks (Gimbar).
- Once in class, students are able to collaborate and fill in any small gaps through peer teaching (Gimbar).
Students must be prepared for a flipped classroom.
- Self-directed models might shock students (Papastathis).
- Teach students how to use the content library (Papastathis).
- Have students write down questions as they use the resource (Papastathis).
Students may have poor note-taking skills.
- Train students to ask higher-level questions (Papastathis).
- Teach students to answer lower-level questions on their own time using tools such as Google (Papastathis).
Citations
Bergman, J. (2011). Flipping the Classroom. Educational Horizons, 90(1), 5-7.
Bergman, J. & Sams, A. [Cisco]. (2012, July 20). Flipped Class 101 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9MY92TM0hM
Butrymowicz, S. (2013). 'Flipped Classroom' Model's Promise Eludes Poorer School Districts. Huff Post: Education. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/flipped-classroom-models-_n_1594279.html
ECUCAUSE Learning Initiative. (2012). Retrieved from 7 Things You Should Know About… Flipped Classrooms: www.educause.edu/eli
Fulton, K. (2012). The Flipped Classroom: Transforming Education at Byron High School. THE Journal, 39(3), 18-20.
Gimbar, K. (2011, December 28). What If Students Don’t Watch The Videos? – FAQ – Katie Gimbar’s Flipped Classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1MKpyVPilI&feature=related
Papastathis, C. (2013, January 4). Preparing Students for a Flipped Classroom. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://flippedclassroom.org/video/preparing-students-for-a-flipped-classroom
Sams, A. [Flipped Learning]. (2010, December 16). The Flipped Classroom. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc&feature=player_embedded#at=55
TechSmith. (n.d.). The Flipped Classroom. Retrieved from www.techsmith.com/flipped-classroom.html