Module 7 Culminating: The Flipped Classroom

Article Link:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/Evidence-on-Flipped-Classrooms-Is-Still-Coming-In.aspx

Reflection:

One new idea in education today revolves around the idea of a “flipped” classroom. That is, the students are able to watch short videos with the lesson presented at home, or at the beginning of the class, and then the majority of the time spent in class with the teacher is used to practice the concept, ask questions, or compare problem solving solutions. Particularly in mathematics, this strategy can be worthwhile as students often fail to fully grasp new concepts when they learn them through a lecture format. As suggested in the article “Research Says Evidence on Flipped Classrooms Is Still Coming In” by Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller, in Educational Leadership’s journal, “after a hit-or-miss lecture, teachers often assign homework, which many students perform in a private hell of frustration and confusion” due to their lack of understanding of the concepts. As the curriculum has changed so much in the last twenty years, the concepts that students are now learning are often foreign to their parents who are thus unable to assist them in completing their homework. The flipped classroom reverses this problem by allowing the students to learn the concept at home, and then practice the concept in class with the aid of the teacher and their peers. Teachers are also able to better communicate with students, and provide them with much faster individualized supports and feedback.

I really appreciate the beginning of the article which acknowledges that lectures are not inherently bad, as “they can be an effective way to help students acquire new knowledge”. As a secondary teacher, I recognize the importance of providing students with the tools that they will need to succeed in post-secondary institutions. I therefore feel that it is important that students are exposed to some lecture-style lessons, as many of them will be faced with this style of teaching in university or college, and will need to understand how to effectively take notes and ingest the information. Through the flipped classroom, some of the video lessons may still be in lecture format, which can allow students to practice their note taking skills and ability to digest information in faster paced environment. With that being said however, for many students, they may need additional supports in order to understand new concepts. Using a technique such as the flipped classroom may allow these students who may feel overwhelmed with lectures to learn the concepts more thoroughly and develop a greater proficiency as they are able to ask more questions and get one-on-one assistance after they have watched the lesson online.

The journal article also notes how today’s students have a limited attention span of often around ten minutes. Through the flipped classroom, teachers can utilize this information to chunk their video lessons into more manageable ten minute sessions in order to increase engagement and understanding. I have found in my own classroom that many students often cannot sit still or pay attention for longer than ten minutes as they are digital natives, and are accustomed to accessing information at a much faster pace. They would often prefer a quick explanation, rather than a longer more exploratory lesson.

I am curious about the results of some of the preliminary studies which have been conducted on the flipped classroom. The article mentions that in one survey of 453 teachers, 67% reported increased test scores (especially for advanced students and students with special needs), and 80% noted an improvement in student attitudes. I am curious whether these statistics would change based on the subject and grade level. While I recognize the benefits of the flipped classroom in a secondary math and science classroom, I wonder how effective it would be in other classes where there is not always the need for ample practice time and problem solving, such as history or English classes. Most exemplars focus on the sciences and maths, but I think it would be interesting to explore how it would work in the arts or social sciences, where rote practice may not be required.