Sunday, 20 September 2015

The flipped classroom


The flipped classroom

The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions


The flipped classroom is very much about moving away from teacher directed learning in big spaces to more self-directed learning in the individual learning space. It is not on-line learning but opportunity throughout the learning unit to engage the learning material individually before returning to class to discuss any questions or concerns that came out of the learning.

A big element  of the flipped classroom is REFLECTION which is central to good pedagogical practice and higher order thinking. Research (Butler & Winne, 1995 in Marzano) notes asking students to identify and record their confusion about content enhances their learning. This is particularly relevant after critical-input experiences. It is important for helping students to effectively interact with new knowledge and actively process the content.
Effective flips require careful preparation. This should not be rocket science from the point of view that every lesson and unit of work requires careful preparation. In fact studies (Haycock 1998; Marzano 2003; Nye, Konstantopoulos & Hedges 2004 in Marzano) on how effective schools make substantial differences in the achievement of students noted one most influential component and that was the individual teachers within the school. Effective teachers used effective instructional strategies, effective classroom management strategies and effective classroom curriculum design.

Flipped is not synonymous for video teaching. In a textiles environment it may be a case of trying different production methods to come to a conclusion about an issue

A Flipped classroom also requires effective instructional strategies (for a flexible learning environment), effective classroom management strategies (shift in learning culture) and effective classroom curriculum design (intentional content, videoed and prepared)

The downside to this style of teaching and learning is the loss of face-to face in the immediacy of the experience and a potential reliance on technology for the delivery of on-line video’s. In the event of teachers sending home written material, the difficulty lies with students who are poor readers with corresponding difficulty comprehending the material.  The exponential impact of this scenario is the student loss of interest and not engaging the content and subsequently withdrawing from class discussion.

However, the positive to this scenario is the teacher may find their time is devoted to the students who are struggling and the proactive learners continue learning in a self-directed manner.

The emphasis is to move away from “passive” learning and information giving to engaging, testing and questioning knowledge. Such skills are in line with the 18 key elements Marzano identifies as important for engaging content – all of which can be accommodated in a flipped classroom.

An important consideration is the year level/age group ability to be disciplined and have the skills to engage material and question. In part this require some higher order thinking skills to identify the critical information and ability to engage the material with any one of the thinking hats to be ready for the next class and have an informed discussion about the material. From this point of view, not every class would be a flipped class. Rather in the big scheme of intentional planning the teacher would need to identify the timing of the flipped lessons.

As a student myself engaging a textile curriculum it has been a challenging task on-line. The self-directed learning has been invaluable but the lack of face-to-face has made it difficult to gauge if my learning is still on track. The flipped classroom seems a happy in-between balance of self-directed learning and teacher led for the students who have the ability to engage this new culture of learning.

While research is limited on the effectiveness of flipped learning, some relevant factors have been identified for its benefits. These include effectiveness from:

  • active learning
  • peer tutoring
  • greater recall
  • accommodation of diverse learners

I can see that these elements are relevant to a textiles classroom particularly engaging a critical enquiry assessment approach. Time in class could be utilised well by the teacher to support students who need extra help and for students with more diverse needs provided the curriculum and resources were well planned.

References


Jon Bergmann, Jerry Overmyer and Brett Wilie (2003) The flipped class: Myth vs Reality  in The Daily Riff viewed on http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-
689.php

 Marzano, J (2007)The Art & Science of Teaching Heatherton, Australia


http://www.flippedlearning.org/cms/lib07/VA01923112/Centricity/Domain/41/LitReview_FlippedLearning.pdf

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