A little over a year ago I wrote a post about the flipped classroom, why I loved it, and how I used it. I have to admit, the flip wasn’t the same economic and political entity then that it is now. And in some ways, I think that matters.
Here’s the thing. When I recently re-read the post, I didn’t disagree with anything I’d said. Yet my brief love affair with the flip has ended. It simply didn’t produce the tranformative learning experience I knew I wanted for my students .
When I wrote that post, I imagined the flip as a stepping stone to a fully realized inquiry/PBL classroom. And the flip’s gradual disappearance from our learning space hasn’t been a conscious decision: it’s simply a casualty of our progression from a teacher-centred classroom to a student-centred one.
What is the flip?
The flipped classroom essentially reverses traditional teaching. Instead of lectures occurring in the classroom and assignments being done at home, the opposite occurs. Lectures are viewed at home by students, via videos or podcasts (found online or created by the teacher), and class time is devoted to assignments or projects based on this knowledge. In theory, this sounds terrific.
When I first encountered the flip, it seemed like a viable way to help deal with the large and sometimes burdensome amount of content included in my senior Biology & Chemistry curricula. So many times in the past I had thought what many science teachers must think: “I’d love to do more hands-on activities, but we have to get through the content first.” The flipped classroom might offer a solution.
My flipped experiments
I first encountered the flip in a blog post. At the time, it was a relatively new idea (at least in the K12 world). There weren’t any websites or books devoted to it. And while the particular post I read was actually expounding the virtues of traditional teaching vs. the flip, I thought, “Flipping could actually work.”
My students loved the idea of trying something that very few other students were doing. Some of my students even benefited from watching and re-watching videos. Even so, we used it sparingly. We never moved to an entirely flipped classroom that required my students to watch lecture after lecture, day after day, by video. Even so, when we did “flip,” it felt more like we were juggling the traditional lecture around than moving forward into a new learning paradigm.
We began to shift
As I shifted my classroom from teacher-centred to student-centred, my students began to do lots of their their own research. Sometimes this resulted in them teaching each other. Sometimes they created a project with the knowledge they were acquiring. But the bottom line was that their learning had a purpose that was apparent to them, beyond simply passing the unit exam.
What was my role? I helped them learn to learn. I prompted them to reflect on their thinking and learning, while at the same time I shared my own journey as a learner. I helped them develop skills such as using research tools, finding and evaluating sources, and collaborating with their peers. My goal as a teacher shifted from information-giver and gatekeeper to someone who was determined to work myself out of a job by the time my students graduated.
The flip faded away
As this new way of learning played out over time, my students found they didn’t need me to locate or create videos for them. Instead, they learned how to learn, and they were able to find their own resources. For me, this was a much more important skill than following my directions or using the resources I told them to use.
As this shift occurred, the flip simply disappeared from our classroom. It took almost a year for me to notice it was gone. Instead, our classroom had become a place where students discovered and shared their own resources, while engaging in projects with each other. There was no need for me to assign video homework or create portable lectures. It all happened during class.
Lest anyone think we were able to do this because we learn in a high-tech school, that’s not the case. We weren’t a 1:1 classroom. We used whatever devices my students had, which often was a couple of iPads, a few computers, and student cell phones. There were students who didn’t have a device, so other students shared. We made it work and everyone learned.
The flip is gone for good
While I may not have intentionally removed the flip from my classroom, I would never resurrect it. Here’s why:
1) I dislike the idea of giving my students homework. Really? Yes. Students spend over five hours a day engaged in academic pursuits. I think that is enough. Recently I’ve been reading Alfie Kohn’s book The Homework Myth. He has mined the research on homework thoroughly, and — overwhelmingly — it shows that homework has no long-term impact on academic achievement. That’s likely shocking to some teachers.
But beyond this, I think there’s more to life than being engaged in academics. Students need to participate in a variety of pursuits — sports, music, drama, meaningful jobs — to fully develop all of their talents and discover areas of interest. Furthermore, students need to spend time with their families. What right do I have impinge on this?
2) A lecture by video is still a lecture. This summer I had the opportunity to speak with a superintendent from a division outside of my own. He was curious about the flipped classroom. We were with a group of educators and he asked if anyone present had used it. Since I was the teacher with the most experience with it, I spoke about what it looked like in our classroom. Mostly I talked about inquiry learning and student choice.
At the end, he looked at me and said, “So the videos — did you make your own, or use ones that someone else had made?” My immediate thought was, “you don’t get it.” I was candid: “If you think it’s only about the videos, then you have a really shallow definition of what this could be. The real power is when students take responsibility for their own learning.”
Of course, the reality is that many if not most teachers who opt for the flipped classroom strategy are not pursuing a student-centred approach to teaching and learning. The traditional model of learning is simply being reversed, instead of being reinvented. The lecture (live or on video) is still front and center.
Learning isn’t simply a matter of passively absorbing new information while watching a lecture on video; new knowledge should be actively constructed. When we shifted to a student-centred classroom, my students took control of their learning, and I quit lecturing. I haven’t lectured in almost two years.
3) I want my students to own their learning. It’s been stated that “At its most basic level, the flipped classroom gives students more control over their educations, allowing them to start and stop or rewind important lectures to focus on key points.” To me, this isn’t giving students control over their education, although it may be creating new markets for content-oriented videos and related materials.
In our classroom, we sit down with the curriculum, and students actually see what the outcomes and objectives are. We then have a dialogue about what my students’ learning might look like. They have a choice over what order they are going to work on outcomes, how they are going to learn and reach those outcomes, and how they are going to show me what they have learned.
As my students worked with me to invent our own version of student-centred learning, we realized that the three questions every student in our classroom had to answer were: What are you going to learn? How are you going to learn it? How are you going to show me your learning? This became our mantra — our framework for learning. This is what it means to give students “control over their education.”
4) My students need to be able to find and critically evaluate their own resources. Consequently, if I’m continuously handing them resources, they are not going to learn this skill. It’s more important for my students to learn to learn than to absorb the content in any video I might make and hand to them, with most of the thinking already done for them.
What did our classroom become instead?
Last year in my Chemistry class, our last unit was on Stoichiometry, which, essentially, is chemistry math. We had approximately 10 concepts to learn in 8 weeks. Each concept built upon the other, so there was a specific route we had to follow for it to make sense. Beyond that, how we got there was completely open.
I told my students we had 10 concepts to learn in 8 weeks. They could work at their own pace, with whatever resources they chose, but in the end, we all needed to be done in 8 weeks when the semester ended. On the first day we all started in the same place. I had provided a rudimentary outline of the concepts we needed to study on our wiki (which we’d been using all semester to create our own digital textbook). My students chose the resources that helped them learn best. Throughout the 8 weeks, students sent me the ones they considered “best of the best,” and they were added to our online textbook. And it really was “ours.”
What happened over the coming days is that my students fanned out. Some shot ahead because they found the initial concepts quite easy. Others needed to hunker down to really grasp them. My students differentiated their own instruction. They worked at their own pace, since they chose their own resources. They could do extra work at home if they felt it necessary.
I talked to every student every day. I could look at their work, have them articulate their thinking process, and see where they were struggling. I could spend time helping those who really needed it. The thing I find about Chemistry is that many students lack the background knowledge to begin to make the neural connections that are essential for understanding it. Some students experience a great deal of cognitive dissonance, and when they do, we talk about that in the context of their brain development.
To work through the concepts, some chose on-line stoichiometry sites, others preferred pencil and paper, and still others constructed models of their thinking. One student decided to use a traditional textbook. The students who needed to talk through their thinking could do so with their peers or with me.
Essentially, they needed to construct theories as to how stoichiometry works, rather than watching a video and memorizing the equation. As Alfie Kohn states, a learning environment that promotes constructing knowledge “treats students as meaning makers and offers carefully calibrated challenges that help them to develop increasingly sophisticated theories. The point is for them to understand ideas from the inside out.”
That’s how most people learn best, learning things from the inside out, and I don’t think lecture videos promote this.
Was it chaotic?
No. The thing that I didn’t expect was that my students created flexible groups, depending on what they were working on. They found peers who were working on the same concept they were, so that they could help each other. Sometimes they realized who they couldn’t work with on a particular day, and found a different group of peers to work with instead. And to solidify what my students were learning, we engaged in hands-on activities and labs that actually used the Chemistry concepts they were studying.
For the first time, none of my students were left behind. Everyone learned Chemistry. Everyone received credit for the class. And my students became more adept at research, thinking, collaborating, problem solving, and reflecting on their own learning. Everyone finished on time.
It’s not about fads – it’s about ownership
I’ve learned that inquiry & PBL learning can be incredibly powerful in the hands of students. I would never teach any other way again.
When students own their learning, then deep, authentic, transformative things happen in a classroom. It has nothing to do with videos, or homework, or the latest fad in education. It has everything to do with who owns the learning.
For me, the question really is: who owns the learning in your classroom?
Shelley Wright
Latest posts by Shelley Wright (see all)
- Start with Why: The power of student-driven learning - May 8, 2019
- Are You Ready to Join the Slow Education Movement? - August 26, 2014
- Academic Teaching Doesn't Prepare Students for Life - November 7, 2013
This is amazing! I want to try this with one of my honors geometry units. I too have tried to flip my classroom with little satisfaction. I’d love to know more about how you go about ensuring students learn and what types of assessments you use.
I have the same request as Leah… I’d love to hear more about how you assess your students’ learning! And what amount and what kind of structure you give them to help the know what it will take to show mastery of concepts! I love this approach (giving students the learning objectives, helping them form a plan for how to meet them, then setting them loose), but feel like it hasn’t really worked out whenever I’ve tried it…
I have to admit, I don’t know a lot about student-centred learning and algebra/geometry! Have you ever looked at Karl Fisch’s or Dan Meyer’s stuff? Both teach in this area and do amazing things in their classrooms.
As for assessment, we do a lot of formative feedback. I watch what my students are working on everyday. I see where they struggle & where they learn easily. I give them feedback on their thinking processes through conversations. I have them talk through what their hypothesis or formula is and why.
We do as little summative assessment as possible. If I could get rid of marks, I would. However, because we can’t, summative assessment happens for labs & projects. Students also self-assess.
Last spring, here at the Voices blog, Shelley wrote about student-driven learning in two of the subjects she teaches: English and science
John (the Voices editor)
Do you do any traditional pen and paper testing? I do a lot of hands on in my chemistry classes, but find that weaker students rely on others too much and I need a method to determine who actually knows what. I do a lot of formative assessment too, but percentages are looked at for post-secondary. I wish percentages were gone and I could just give grades. It’s easy to discern A students from B students from C students, but really, what’s the difference between an 85% and an 86%?
I have the exact same issues. At the end of the semester, my students need to have a mark. I’d love to get rid of marks and simply have feedback, but until that day, I’ll struggle with the mark thing too.
I don’t give traditional exams. My students have a practical final that requires them to use everything they’ve learned. They also hand in labs, both written and visually created ones, usually it’s a voicethread or a V-lab. And of course there are projects that are marked, and the students provide a self-assessment.
I have to admit, I don’t know a lot about student-centred learning and algebra/geometry! Have you ever looked at Karl Fisch’s or Dan Meyer’s stuff? Both teach in this area and do amazing things in their classrooms.
As for assessment, we do a lot of formative feedback. I watch what my students are working on everyday. I see where they struggle & where they learn easily. I give them feedback on their thinking processes through conversations. I have them talk through what their hypothesis or formula is and why.
We do as little summative assessment as possible. If I could get rid of marks, I would. However, because we can’t, summative assessment happens for labs & projects. Students also self-assess.
I am now a master “flipper”
Whats so funny is that this is all essentially the structure of traditional Kindergartens. It would be nice to see more Secondary Ed people learn from the Early Childhood folks who maintain this classroom management style in all subjects- and who know full well about the limitations of lectures and group assessments.
Mitchel Resnick did and why he named his lab at MIT the “Lifelong Kindergarten”!
I agree! There are so many things that early elementary does right that we get rid of when kids get older, and I’m not sure why.
While I agree with many of the elements in what you discuss, and see its beneficial application across many subjects, your not understanding why education gets rid of the “things that early elementary does right” is because we are to be preparing students for college, and ultimately to be successful and productive citizens.
Many misuse the Constructivist approach to learning by dumbing down the content. This is NOT something that early elementary “does right,” and the dumbing down or education is rampant. By the time they get to high school, students have no reasoning skills and are so far behind in content that they would either need to attend high school until they are 30 years old OR go back to the more traditional (and unfortunately, much more efficient) methods of lecture and memorization.
While the “approach” might be something that elementary ed. is getting right, the lack of rigor and content is not. Hand in hand with the Constructivist approach of learning is the liberal mentality that the point of education is to teach everyone to skip down the sidewalk holding hands and singing Kumbaya.
Its high time educators embrace both rigor in content and accountability AND experiential learning. Only when elementary educators across the board start employing BOTH will teachers at the high school level be able to break the bonds of monotonous but content filled traditional methods.
THAT’s why you don’t see the type of teaching that would be ideal at a higher level. Students for the most part are not held accountable and have a sense of entitlement because of the lack of rigor and the pedagogy of the leftist direction the education system has taken.
I am by no means saying that is the case in YOUR classroom, but it is the case in most.
From my experience, the “dumbing down” of material is by the choice of the teacher. I have learned many valuable lessons volunteering in a certain teacher’s kindergarten class. I was amazed at what these students knew about wildlife and science! As students found interest in snakes, they ended up learning the words viviparous and ovoviviparous, which describe the egg-laying strategy of various snake species. As a wildlife biologist, I did not learn these words until college, yet here they are introduced in kindergarten!
Was talked to by VP once for using small groups in class. Told I had to do lectures so lectures were what I did.
I so agree!!! I love to hear someone else say thing. I am a music teacher for PK3 to High School, as well as the new (read learning) edtech guy. I always have told teachers that Pre-K and Kindergarden have the keys to teaching everyone and we should try to employ that idea of classroom management.
the K-3 students perhaps carry the learner-centered expectation along to the later grade levels, so maybe the students will engender the environment in middle and high school and savvy teachers will sense it and act on it.
Hey Leah, I know it’s been 5 years since you left this comment, but I was wondering if you’re still headed in this direction and how it’s going. I’m teaching geometry and trying to plan for next year.
The real leaders in the flipped classroom community are some of the most constructivist teachers I know, people who are using videos in class in a supplementary way to Model Educated People Doing (whatever; close reading in my case, alongside Cheryl Morris).
It strikes me very powerfully that you and I and lots of the people on the front edge of defining the Flipped Classroom have definitions of education (and actual classrooms, for that matter) that are virtually identical to yours.
I don’t come here to rant, but I do want to make sure we aren’t constructing straw men from misinformation and burning them in the public square.
In honesty, I don’t think I’ve constructed a “straw man”, I’ve simply stated my opinion, which likely differs from yours. My classroom didn’t need the flip, and didn’t benefit from it. In addition to the fact that I think there’s more to life than academics and homework.
I think it’s entirely possible for a number of teachers to have constructivist classrooms and arrive at them in entirely different ways. That seems right to me.
In my experience it is very difficult to create a student-centred classroom. Shockingly difficult at times. And messy. And I think a lot of teachers feel bad about that, not realizing that’s what happens in authentic learning and it’s a good thing. I think my students and I probably learned more from all the things that went wrong, than the things that went right. But we don’t talk about that a lot in education.
My concern is that the flip is described as, “Lectures are viewed at home by students, via videos or podcasts (found online or created by the teacher), and class time is devoted to assignments or projects based on this knowledge.”
The second part of that sentence is the crucial part, and the most difficult part, and yet in a lot of writing about the flip that’s the part that’s glossed over, as if teachers automatically know how to do that. Most don’t. I know that because that’s what I’m asked about all the time, in person, over Skype, via email. How do I do what I do? Teachers, who were educated in a traditional system, and have taught in a traditional system, don’t naturally know how to make this shift; it requires teachers to see the world differently, and I think that’s what we need to help with.
The new definition of the “flip” can be found at the link below, but also can be described as any classroom in which :
1. There is a focus on higher-order thinking skills
2. Students (and not the teachers) are the center of the classroom and drive the learning
3. Teachers are making the best use of their face-to-face time with students.
That is precisely what you describe in your blog post. Perhaps the “straw man” was little over the line… but teachers have enough political enemies without constructing debates over semantics when our actual arguments are pretty much identical.
I agree wholeheartedly with the last part of your reply–with respect to, essentially, “We’ve made all this class time, so what do we do with it?” types of questions. That’s where most of our work is happening (Cheryl’s and mine) (see here: http://www.concertedchaos.com/1/post/2012/09/the-first-tmiclass-unit.html). This unit isn’t really PBL, but it’s scaffolding in that direction. We are finding that teachers aren’t the only ones who need scaffolding up to a pure PBL inquiry class; students flounder when their 11 years of Playing School Training are jerked away from them all at once. We’re building bridges. (I’m trying to build one now.)
Let’s work together to revolutionize education.
More reading here: http://www.morrisflipsenglish.com/1/post/2012/07/so-you-want-to-flip-your-class.html
Andrew – I love the principles you have identified in your website. I am a supporter of them.
However… is it then still helpful to use the phrase ‘flipped’ for such a broad definition of how to facilitate learning? Very specifically it seems to have commonly caught on in parlance as refering to the practice of using video to allow students to acquire ‘knowledge’ outside of lessons so that contact time can be used for the practical elaboration of that knowledge?
I know that it isn’t great to have a new educational label and movement every week, but surely just deciding to change the meaning of ‘flipped’ to something entirely wider isn’t going to help anyone. Presumably, we could probably use the adjective ‘flipped’ to describe ANY form of schooling which has turned some aspect on its head (such as banning all computers from schools), and see how confusing that becomes!
Yes, to me the crucial point is “students flounder when their years of Playing School Training are jerked away from them all at once “. I teach middle school robotics, and try to make it a self-paced, student centered classroom (though I do make screencasts to explain the programming techniques they need to know). Often and often, the students are unable to be responsible for their own learning. I create scaffolding for them to cling to, and eventually they start to get it, but with some of them it’s a constant struggle. On the other hand, I have the joy of seeing those kids who are slowed down and constrained in traditional classes flying free, and sometimes right out of my realm of competence. I follow happily in their footsteps and learn from them.
My understanding of “flipping” in education (whether it is called flipped classroom, flipped teaching, whatever) is that there isn’t one definition that describes all situations.
Flipping has become a buzzword so much so that Ramsey Musallam has all but stopped using the term in favor of “cycles of learning.” I think the idea is that we change the focus of the learning experience from the teacher to the student, and I think you’d agree that we’re on the same page there.
One thing I think is very striking is that someone could come away from your article thinking you’re saying that flipping doesn’t work. But in your case it DID work . . . just not the way you expected. Would you really have changed to your current (and very exciting, I might add) student-centered model without having gone through the experiences you did with flipping? You said so much yourself, it just may not have come across that way to some readers.
I have a friend here in Northern California who, inspired by the work of Ramsey Musallam, Dan Meyer, and others, is piloting a new flipped/student-centered/self-paced approach to his world history classes. It’s too early into the process to comment at all on how it’s going, but I think this is a step in the right direction to showing everyone, both within and outside the education community, that we can achieve better results (real results, not bogus test “results”) by getting students to buy in and take charge of their learning.
People may think it can’t be done. I think some kind of flipping may well be the first step for many such skeptics. It’s the willingness to break out of the mold of the 19th Century factory model of education that is the starting line. And the goal is not the finish line; it’s the journey of learning itself.
Hi Diane,
The self-paced approach has been something I have been wanting to try (not just flipping, but a truly self-paced environment), but have had a hard time coming up with a way to implement it in a traditional classroom. I teach World and US History and would be interested in reaching out to your friend to see how it went this year. If possible, could you send me an email address. If not, I understand. I’m just looking for some ideas.
On another note…responding to this article…I have tried to flip my classroom with the traditional definition discussed above, and also found that a lecture is still a lecture whether it is live or on video. There are benefits and there are drawbacks. Re-watching lectures and providing an opportunity for absent kids to stay up to date is a huge advantage to video lectures. However, I felt weird knowing that some of my students never watched it. Even though the material was exposed to them in the form of in class activities and assignments, it was still just something that bothered me. I have mixed feelings about this topic.
In the end, whether you like flipped classrooms or not, the fact that we are having this discussion is great. Too many teachers just go through the motions and never experiment. We are all trying to do a better job and increase learning in our classrooms. For that we should all be proud.
You hit the nail on the head when you said, “…it is possible for a number of teachers to have constructivist classrooms and arrive at them in entirely different ways”. I view flipped classrooms as an interim step towards a constructivist classroom. It “frees” up teachers to observe and better understand their students. I have seen it help break traditional teachers out of their teacher-centered mode and lay the foundation for a more project-oriented and student-centered classroom. In my case, the content of my videos has changed. It started videos of my lectures, but they had computer simulations and demonstrations. Now, my videos are more abstract and purposely do NOT provide 100% of the instruction necessary to learn a concept. As the year progresses, I fade my instruction and my videos are more scaffolding.
I would have to say I think your classroom did need the flip or at least you did. It was maybe a necessary intermediary stage. I think it would be much hard to go from a traditional lecture in class homework and reading at night straight into what you have now. Moving to flip gave you and your student’s the confidence and future students the expectation for their learning.
Andrew that is an interesting take on the article. Mine was different.
While I was reading my sense was that the flip was more of the intermediate step between the traditional teacher-classroom and the student-centered classroom.
She didn’t take the video lecture away, she just stopped using it and realized that she would never do so again. However, students are still free to use video in the classroom, even at home if they choose. As you said the most constructivist teachers use video as a supplement.
Love the flip that you made. We changed vocabulary to reflect it. We’re facilitators instead of teachers and we have learners instead of students. I think it makes learning an active pursuit instead of a passive one.
Keep up the great work!
@Jefftspencer
Thanks, Jeff!
Thanks Shelley
Sounds like the flip functioned as a transition for your classroom. It is good to see evolution take place. The most important thing is that students take more ownership of their learning.
I can see the flip assists teachers in getting to the learner-centered classroom. The flip is flexible, and I see flippers evolving, having their students directing more and more of their learning. Where the evolution will go for each teacher and their students will vary. Whether it will look like a flip or not is not important.
Thank you for a glimpse into your evolution as a teacher. It is a great perspective as I venture out in my own evolution as a teacher.
I think some teachers and students might find the flip helpful in transitioning to a student-centred classroom, if that’s the goal. I think what we don’t want to see is students watching a video at home, and then working on the same worksheets or textbook questions they would’ve normally had. To me that’s not student-centred learning.
The transition is a difficult one, and I think once you’ve transitioned, it still always takes a lot more work, reflection, and patience than traditional models, but it’s definitely worth it.
Thanks for commenting!
I could have just kept reading the comments, of course….
But I, like a student, felt a need to express my understanding of what is happening here.
Isn’t it such an exciting time to be an educator?
Great post! I loved it! Especially this quote:The traditional model of learning is simply being reversed, instead of being reinvented. The lecture (live or on video) is still front and center.
I love that you are focused on a student centered experience and letting that drive the rest. All too often we get focused on systems or buzzwords and spend so much energy trying to perfect that instead of focusing on the kids.
Thanks for a you do! And for sharing!
Thanks for your kind words and encouragement!
Thank. You.
I think you just helped me make the “flip” in my head: Real, authentic, student driven, sticky learning can’t be branded. It’s just learning. If we were doing real, authentic, student driven, sticky learning in our classrooms to begin with, why would we have to “flip” them?
Thank. You.
Well said. We’re all after the same kind of learning–the kind you and Shelley describe. The reality is that many teachers aren’t there yet, and we talk about the “flip” as a bridge to get more people further down that road. But we need to make sure that we understand that you and she and I and a lot of my flipper-friends are on the same team–and we have the same end goal in mind.
Hi Andrew,
I don’t really see this as an us against them sort of thing, or that I’m on a team. You flip, I don’t, and that’s okay 🙂
This is exactly the conversation that needs to be heard about flipped learning AND the place of homework in learning.
Thank you!
I guess one of the things I’m concerned about is what if every teacher “flipped” and had videos for homework. That could be a lot of watching every night, and I’m not sure how engaged students would be in the end.
Many of my students went home and did research in the evening about things we were learning in class. However, it was student initiated and directed, and I think that makes a world of difference.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for sharing your experiences …
… it may be a Blog Post but it sounds like you have an eBook in you 🙂
Watch for Shelley’s e-book about her try/fail/try again journey to student-centered learning – coming this school year from Powerful Learning Press…
John (the Voices editor)
I worry about the “commercialization” of the Flipped Classroom. It seems like I’m seeing more and more companies selling the latest and greatest gizmo for flipping your classroom and they all seem to focus on simply turning lectures into video. Because of that I feel many are starting to look at the FC as a fad or just fluff.
But I’ve seen first hand how “flipping done right” can make a positive impact on both me as a teacher and my students.
While I started with what I call the “traditional flip” of replacing classroom lecture with at-home video, it also allowed me to move towards a much richer learning environment. Specifically, it allowed me to move towards a student-centered learning environment. That was a process and it took time for me to wrap my head around. I also found I had to learn those lessons in the heat of the moment. I don’t know if I could have made the transition directly from a “chronic lecturer” to a student-centered classroom. I needed steps to get me there.
Instead of saying this flipped love affair was a failure (see article below), perhaps it should be seen as a success leading to a more student-centered classroom.
Hi Dan,
It’s great that you’ve moved towards a student-centred classroom, and that the flip was able to help you get there. I don’t judge teachers who use the flip to do so. My progression from a lecture-based class was exhausting. There were times I thought I was going to shatter into a million pieces because it required me to shift my thinking so much, so I can relate to your experience.
But I don’t think the flip is right for every teacher or every student. And I don’t think a teacher needs to use the flip to become inquiry/pbl based. There are plenty of great sites, like Edutopia & Buck Insitute for Education that provide amazing resources for teachers to begin this transition.
I agree completely. Anybody who claims flipping will work for every teacher and every student is trying to sell teachers something. I just don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. If it helps teachers move towards a more student-centered model like it did for you and me, that’s a great thing in my opinion. If teachers stall at the point of moving lectures to a video format I think they are missing the point.
Keep up the great work!
I too am concerned with the commercialization of flipped learning. But I have always thought that it was a stepping stone to self-directed project-based learning and I am thrilled that Shelly is in that camp now. I am on much the same journey. My class is hardly flipped at all this year but there is almost no lecture. Students have options on how to learn and if they need to watch a video they can.
Elimination self-pacing has been very good also for 7th graders. Perhaps later in the year we can move a little more back in the direction of self-pacing. Most eleven-year-olds brought up in a factory school system are not ready for self-pacing and very few can even get used to it in a single school year.
I can relate. Many grade 12’s brought up in the factory school system aren’t ready for self-pacing either! That’s why it’s so important this begins in K & gr. 1 and continues on. It’s difficult, but important.
Dan: I agree that flipping is not a panacea, but you have to admit it gets teachers to TRY a new pedagogy.
I was not happy with the characterization of Flipped as Failure. As I read your comment, I thought that this was sort of like saying that dating was a failure because we got married.
Flip didn’t fail her, except in the narrowest definition. She started by Flipping the information presentation and has gotten to the point of flipping curriculum development (as they choose their own goals and resources). Perhaps later, she will develop techniques to flip responsibility for the decision to be in school at all. It would be awesome if we had classrooms that kids were dying to join.
I love Shelley’s perspective and wish she was teaching my own children. Thanks for the nice article.
Thank for sharing your experience and being brave enough to share it publicly.
What a great reflection and in my mind many of the shifts that I would love to see more teachers making. I think the names itself show the focus of the methodology: Flipped classroom INSTRUCTION vs. Performance/Problem-based LEARNING. One of those approaches is making the shift from teaching to learning. While both aim at authentic learning, one of them is putting the control into the teacher’s hands (I don’t view choosing a video lecture or rewinding it at will, as a true choice), while the other truly put the students in charge and makes the teacher a learning facilitator instead of a lecturer.
Very well stated and interesting articulation of the paradigm shift. I like how you allow student voice in design and I’m curious how you address student engagement in the content?
As students take responsibility for their learning, deciding how they’re going to meet objectives & show their learning, the engagement piece usually takes care of itself. But not always. I have some students by grade 10-12 who have checked out of the school thing and refuse to re-engage with something they consider irrelevant. And nothing I try helps.
This is why I advocate for studen-driven classrooms from K-12. I think if this was the reality, we’d have fewer students who aren’t engaged in their learning. I’ve never met a kid who doesn’t want to learn; they just might not want to learn what we want them too.
Sounds like a vote for student-based curriculum and individualized learning paths based on interests.
Thank you!! Finally someone gets it! The flip is NOT just about recording videos of lectures to watch for homework! My business is “Flip It Consulting” and every single time I tell educators what I do, they immediately think of flipping classrooms by recording lectures for students to watch outside of class. Sure, that’s one way to flip but that’s not really the essence of the flip. The flip in my work is all about what you have described here. It’s all about switching the energy in the classroom from being teacher driven to being student driven. THAT is the flip. It’s all about what happens IN the classroom. In my work, I refer to the FLIP as “Focus on your Learners by Involving them in the Process” which is exactly what you’ve done. Thank you so much for sharing this post and your experiences.
I’ve never heard the “Focus on your learners by involving them in the process”, but I really like it. I think that’s our best shot at creating student-centred environments, and the more choice and involvement our students have in designing the process, the more engaged they should be.
Another vote for FLIP=Focus on your Learners by Involving them in the Process as being a fantastic acronym! And normally, I’m a member of WUTMAA (We Use Too Many Acronyms Anonymous).
Fabulous! Can you or someone within the blog offer ideas as to how to start a flipped classroom in 6th grade math or social studies?
Thanks,
Olive
I’m not sure about social studies, although you might want to take a look at Edutopia’s stuff, as well as the Buck Institute for Education.
For math, Karl Fisch & Dan Meyer have both done really amazing work. Good luck!
I loved this article! I started using a flipped classroom this year, but love in very rural area, so I used worksheets with examples as resources instead of videos. I teach math in high school by the way. It seemed to be working really well but recently it seemed like the flip was disappearing. I was concerned about this, but after reading yur post, I have realized that my classroom has morphed into the one you describe! Thanks so much!
You’re welcome!
Inspiring, thoughtful post, one of the year’s best, in my view.
You mention flipping as a transition to student-centered learning. Others have added here that there can be other ways to ‘get there’, especially since most of us went to school and became teachers ‘the old way’. All of these routes are OK, as long as one is moving along a route.
In the end, teachers beome ‘directors of creation’, just like Gustavo Dudamel with his Youth Orchestra. http://www.ted.com/talks/astonishing_performance_by_a_venezuelan_youth_orchestra_1.html
Music to my ears, Shelley. Thank you for stiring up so many important elements of reflections. I now need to share, debate, construct with fellow teachers.
Thank you for your kind words. You’ve highlighted something really important here: Every teacher is on a journey. Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out how to keep moving or how to get where we want to be, which is why it’s incredible to have the communication platforms that we do.
They allow us to hear from one another, debate ideas, and share.
Thanks for the link to that TED talk. I hadn’t seen it before, but it’s incredibly inspiring!
My issue with the “Flipped Classroom” was that it seemed like and “all-or-nothing” thing. I thought the idea of flipping a classroom provided another great tool for the instructional toolbox (http://wp.me/p1Dq2f-i9).
While I predominantly use PBL, projects are not appropriate for every lesson.
I’ve more or less created an amalgamation of the flipped and PBL. Currently, my students are working on an open-genre writing project. Some working on video and audio, others are making eBooks, graphic novels or classic hand-created books.
Throughout the project, small groups of students need specific lessons. By creating short videos (for them to view in class on their MacBooks- not at home), students get the short mini-lessons they need when they need them.
With this model, lecture video isn’t just “lecture”. It is limited to 5-minutes or less. The video pertains to something the students both want and need at a given time.
Astute ways of using different tools for different tasks/needs. How many times have we heard/read all-or-nothing points of views about a tool, a technique, an approach… Balck or white.
Just like we tell students, it’s what you do with what you know that really counts.
What’s happening in your classroom sounds terrific! I agree that PBL, like the flip, isn’t appropriate for everything. Sometimes my classes have created large projects, like a Holocaust museum. At other times, they’re short, small projects.
In my biology class, I’ve found that students love to solve medical scenarios. So it really depends on what my students need and what inspires them. But I think that’s the key, what students need. The mini-lessons you create respond to immediate student needs in your classroom, which to me, is what student-centred learning is about.
Janet: I am also project-based. I have produced more authentic projects by forcing myself to remain true to being project-based. If a project is “…not appropriate for every lesson”, then maybe combine several smaller “lessons” into a broader concept.
Just my $0.02
Thanks so much for posting on this topic, and for your transparency in recognising the need for a shift in your approach to a flipped classroom. That is such an important aspect to our teaching, isn’t it – the ability and need to evaluate ourselves and our teaching approaches, as well as to determine whether a potential fad is of benefit to our students.
You may be interested in reading my blog post about my experiences with a flipped classroom: http://davidw.edublogs.org/2012/09/02/the-half-flipped-classroom/
David
davidw.edublogs.org
I love the way you think and how you’ve transformed your classroom to address what matters most……students and their learning. I share the same teaching philosophies as you but am still trying to discover the best way to facilitate this in my classroom. Thanks for your thoughts and ideas!
i’d love to know more about how you assess students during this process.
Thanks for reading! Every time I have a new group of students I have to figure it out all over again. But I think the difference is I’ve learned to do it with my students, which is what allows us to customize their learning.
Most of the assessment that happens in our classroom is formative. They get almost daily feedback on their work, mostly through conversation. Summative evaluation occurs on the final labs & projects that are submitted. I also have students self-assess.
You mentioned this earlier, but I would imagine that it is very challenging to get students who have been groomed in the broken system to be willing to change, until they see the value being placed on them and their learning. They’re simply not used to the idea that their education is really about THEM and THEIR learning.
“Every time I have a new group of students I have to figure it out all over again”. I found this to be 110% true – each class is different. Some of my classes have students who can self-assess. Other classes have students who can provide feedback to peers. Others are iron-clad test-takers. You need to have a full toolbox assessment, or else watch out for the students (and their parents).
I guess I’m ahead of the curve. I flipped my classroom 15 years ago by designing my own set of directed reading assignments from our textbooks and requiring that my students have them completed daily. There is reading, of course, and some open ended writing items (that I hate grading). Works great for science class – students are immersed at home and we can build from there in class, and I mean “build” in a very literal sense. I’m so old school, and proud of it.
I would like to congratulate you on moving from a teacher centered to a student centered approach. I feel that the flipped classroom allows you to appropriately rethink your approach. Transferring control to your students and allowing them to take active part in the learning process is huge. There are lots of systematic advantages to using video for reviewing and sharing key concepts. Ones who say the flip is about video are a bit short sighted.
Very interesting article! Makes me feel a bit envious that secondary teachers can be innovative like this, whereas teaching first grade as I do, I am so busy helping kids learn to read and have a solid foundation in all areas–kids can’t do projects if they can’t read! That would be true for middle and high school low performers too.
Also– it would be hard for kids in my school district to access videos online as most lack computers or data phones or iPads/iPods at home. For the poor ones, it’s like looking at a promised land they can never hope ti enter.
Nonetheless, your article has provided much food for thought — I will contemplate how much student centered project based learning I can initiate in my combo 1st/2nd grade classroom. Well done!
One of my fellow bloggers here at VFLR, Kathy Cassidy, is a grade 1/2 teacher, and she uses inquiry and tech in her classroom. She’s written a number of posts on how she integrates PBL and tech into her classroom.
I admit that the early elementary classroom has unique challenges that need to be addressed for inquiry and PBL to occur. Kathy’s blog might be helpful in addressing some of these issues for you.
Kathy Cassidy’s posts are here:
http://plpnetwork.com/author/kathy-cassidy/
Thanks for this post. I think you really figured it out and the fact your kids are
Learning the way that is best for them is very powerful. The points about homework are also very important. I just blogged a post about that in elementary school and am getting mixed response. Just glad I am not the only one. Happier still these views are help by someone in HS.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for sharing. I think many teachers haven’t seen, or possibly have even heard about, the research on homework. I think many of us just assume that since it was part of our own schooling, it must have value. And I’m guessing far fewer parents have seen the research.
Thanks for championing this idea at the elementary level. I think it’s incredibly important for our students!
For my son, who has some learning differences that aren’t really disabilities, homework is torturous punishment. He’s in 3rd grade and a great kid. He just stinks at getting work done. But it doesn’t mean he can’t or doesn’t learn. School as we know it just doesn’t work for him as it did for our great grandparents.
Finally, this is great to read about and to see PBL in action. Student-based and paced learning is so very rewarding. Enjoy.
Thanks for reading!
Liz: Individualize pacing is a very important benefit. There can also be individualized instruction by using a library of videos for each concept.
I agree with Barbi and a few others. It seems like the whole point of the flipped classroom was missed by many. The original “flipped” guys were all about mastery learning and differentiated instruction. They run their classroom everyday like the Stoichiometry unit that was described. Shelley mentions kids using their textbook or online stoichiometry sites – why are those better than using the “flipped videos”? The videos are one part of a bigger approach to student-centered classrooms. You missed a great opportunity to incorporate videos as part of that stoichiometry unit because some kids may have learned more effectively by using them. Use the flipped classroom like you would any other technique – when appropriate for your course and your students. Someone mentioned that PBL is not appropriate all of the time, but that doesn’t mean dump the idea of PBL because it it not right for every unit. This is an awesome discussion thread!!!
My students tend to incorporate videos in most of what we learn,as some chose to do in our Stoichiometry unit. But it’s their choice, not mine. Like you said, students have to get the info to learn from somewhere. I’ve just incorporated that into our classroom learning. To me, it’s more important for them to learn what good resources are and be able to evaluate them, than to know the difference between a cation and an anion.
Shelly: I found that the use of videos NOT made by me was actually an important component of students taking more responsibility for their learning. Often I would build their research skills by asking them to find a “better” video. They accepted the challenge willingly.
My graduate students and I have been experimenting with https://sites.google.com/site/book2cloud/ where the learners curate around a complex text and in collaboration with a teacher librarian/teacher technologist build their own understanding. It seems one more way not only to build personal expertise or cooperative group projects, but also to develop collaborative intelligence. we have been working on lots of examples and are developing more. Our theory is that instead of an isolated teacher going it alone, that adding specialists to the mix, particularly those with expertise in information and technology, might demonstrate the idea that two adult heads plus a number of student investigators might just be better than one…
This sounds terrific. Thanks for sharing!
Any educational process, whether it is flipped classroom, project based learning, inquiry, or whatever, is only as valuable as the guide of that process allows. When the teacher-as-guide skillfully leads the student through the adventure of lifelong learning, the importance of the details of a given lecture (live or on video) can be supplanted by learning momentum fueled by curiosity and product creation generated by an innovative spirit. Flipped or no flipped, the teacher-as-guide no longer needs to limit techniques to an 8 hour school day (homework), a brick and mortar structure (mobile resources), or a particular mode of delivery (video). In Day 100 of the Flipped Blog (bit.ly/flippedblog), I retold a conversation between an art docent and a structural engineer. As the engineer puts it, “The devil is in the details.”
You describe Montessori.
Education is child- or student-centered in Montessori classrooms everywhere, everyday. A problem seems to be explaining what student-centered education is and then scaling it up so that it is the norm.
“The teacher’s mission has for its aim something constant and exact, bearing in mind the words, “He must grow while I diminish.”” (Maria Montessori)
“What is the greatest sign of success for a teacher transformed? It is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.”” (Maria Montessori)
Yes — I love Montessori!I wish all schools had that philosophy. There are so many things we do right in pre-K & K that we slowly get rid of as our students work their way through the education system. I would really love to see this reversed and have K-12 that is inquiry & play-based, while intentionally developing self-regulatory skills.
The idea of moving away from inquiry and play based is rooted in so many systemic issues. I sometimes wonder if the edtech movement tries to pick up the pieces that true arts integration has not been able to provide the momentum to. As with the scientific process, art and design are modes for in-depth inquiry and play-based exploration. The art and design disciplines provide opportunity for iteration and how to deal with failure in a way that is a possibility for growth and discovery. I think we can run into trouble when trying to classify this type of learning environment and that type of learning environment without honoring what other disciplines have a solid grasp on. I am saying this from the perspective of a technology integrationist but also one that has a foundation in the performing arts…video production was how I started down this path. Is is about the tools or is it about the creative process (a process that encourages self reflection, discovery of new knowledge etc.) that opens up the new possibilities….
Heather: Great post! I view EdTech as a catalyst for change. It seems like tools are easier for people to grasp than wholesale changes to instruction and/or the learning environment. Education is missing design elements of iteration and multiple solutions. In fact, the US is less tolerant of struggling in the education (vs other societies) – see this excellent NPR report (n.pr/QAzj3o).
Shelly: I enjoyed your post. This may sound odd from the guy who wrote the book on the flipped class. One of my main concerns with how the term “flipped class” is being explained in the press is just what you said. Video as HW and class time for work time. That is not what I believe about education. I see the flipped class as a way to get TO deeper learning–to get to a learner centered classroom. You might want to see my blog post at: http://flipped-learning.com/?p=725 where I explained how the flip leads teachers to real 21st century learning. I don’t see the flip as the answer, but rather, as a way to get to the answer.
I would love to chat some more…
Hi Jon,
I think you and I probably agree on a lot of things about learning and instruction 🙂
I wonder if people focus on the videos as HW & class time as work time because it’s easier to wrap one’s head around — simply flipping what one’s doing already. It’s also probably easier for businesses to create products for this.
But creating a classroom environment that empowers learners, that takes a lot of effort, failure and frustration to figure out what works.
I fully agree with what you’ve said. For us, the flip was a stepping stone to being learner-centred. When my students took control of choosing resources, it disappeared. It’s likely that many teachers will continue to use the flip quite successfully. I’ve read your book, and I think I recall you saying that there are classes you teach that you don’t use video for.
I appreciate you taking the time to be part of the dialogue around this. I think it’s an important discussion. We need more teachers who deeply reflect on their teaching practice & classroom and struggle to figure out what is best to help learners truly own & construct their learning.
Shelly: In fact, Aaron and I are working on our 2nd book and the key theme is how to use the flipped class as a springboard/stepping stone to the deeper learning which you are clearly doing. Great job.
Hi Jon,
I’m so glad you responded. As I was reading Shelley’s post, I kept thinking to things I had just read in your book – that what started as instructional videos morphed into something much greater. The “flip” became the practice and environment, not the videos. I think you, Aaron, and Shelley actually had very similar paths and experiences.
Jon and Shelley,
I’m very concerned about the idea that people who think they know more than actual teachers are looking for buzzwords and methods for marketing supposed push-button panaceas for what is wrong with education today and just trying to slap a new-name bandage on a broken system that really just needs to remember it’s supposed to be all about students.
And that was a very long sentence. Apologies.
Diane: I agree 100% that people tend to focus on the tool instead of the student benefits. Weren’t Smartboards supposed to save education? I think teachers need to be learners and keep up with the latest research and collaborate on how to implement best practices from the research. At the same time, teachers need to be suspect of technology-driven solutions. Teachers need to remember that technology products and textbooks are sold to make a profit and not necessarily improve education.
Shelley
I have been pushing the “flipped” model at the Community College for almost a year now. One of my suggestions for faculty who are considering trying this is to have their students supply the videos. Assign them to cull through all resources and return with 1 or 2 videos that best explain the subject matter. This way the students are learning to research and evaluate resources and have ownership of the content being learned.
I think this is a good starting place. Your idea invites students to become active participants in their learning, which for many at a college level will be foreign to them. Enough small changes like this eventually become significant.
“Who OWNS the learning in your classroom?
Just yesterday I was looking through Publishers Weekly for an assignment for one of my classes (MLIS at SJSU), and I noticed the job postings section… so I thought I would take a look. I thought it would be interesting to see how different companies were composing their job requirements.
What an eye-opener! It seems like the same “stuckedness” runs through all disciplines… and the insights and discoveries (like yours) do also.
Just in their wording, you could tell what kind of “classroom” was being advertised. And, in the job posting from Amazon, from the very first paragraph, the emphasis was on OWNING the department … not working for anyone… OWNING.
You are right on.
Thanks, Margaret!
The labels are tricky. If you define the concept of flipping as lots of video-lecture-homework, then thank goodness you ended the love affair quickly. My understanding of the concept when the buzz started was that it was much broader than that, and that the ideal learner-focused classroom could be described almost exactly as you’ve described your current classroom. It’s not that you gave up on flipping…you just flipped it using the methods you described. If video lectures helped you on that path, then great — just another tool in your toolbox. And congrats on where you’ve landed up — it sounds fantastic.
Thanks, Jeremy. I think there are people who define it broader than how it’s commonly used now; you’re definitely right that labels can be tricky.
I’ve, hopefully, tried to show that learning can and should be broader than simply a traditional model flipped around.
Dear Shelley,
I am an Italian EFL teacher and I’m taking my first steps in flipping the English classroom. I read here that you also teach high school English.
Do you (and the other teachers here) have any suggestions or experience to share about flipping English as a second or foreign language classes and/or English Literature?
Thanks a lot!
ATTILIO
Bergamo – Italy
I don’t know a lot about teaching English as a second or foreign language, but Larry Ferlazzo does. Here’s a link to his site: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/larry-ferlazzos-english-website/
You’ll find all kinds of info and resources that should be able to get you started.
Thanks for this article. It would seem that an important side-effect of this approach is to free teachers to deliver those things that are uniquely theirs to give – guidance, encouragement, feedback and motivation.
I’m not going all touchy-feely here, simply pointing out that providing these things may be a way more valuable function for teachers than the here-to-for “fountain of all knowledge” lecture role.
When you shift to student-centred learning, the role of the teacher changes significantly. Most of the time my job was to listen and watch – to figure out when to ask questions of my students so they would think more deeply, and when to let them struggle. It’s completely different than anything I learned when I was a pre-service teacher!
Very, very nice. When can we all come visit 🙂
Two questions as I struggle with these ideas:
1. You said you did this with your seniors in Biology/Chemistry. Have you tried it with younger students? My experience with my 9th graders is that they seem to need more scaffolding – when I don’t give them a fair amount of structure they tend to flounder a bit.
2. I’m still struggling mightily with “What are you going to learn?” and the idea of “owning their own learning.” Because even with the great things you’re doing in your class (and I mean that), they aren’t really choosing what to learn, are they? You tell them the “8 things they need to know” and they figure out how to learn them. I think that’s great, and definitely a step forward. But as I think about my Algebra class I keep coming back to the same thing, they aren’t choosing to learn the Algebra, I’m making them.
My guess is if you came to visit that’s the day it would all fall apart 🙂
I only teach grade 10-12, so I haven’t done this with grade 9’s, but I understand your point. When I have a new group of grade 10’s it doesn’t look anything like what I’ve described. They don’t have the skills. They have very few research & tech skills, they really have no idea what collaboration is, and many lack the self-regulatory skills you need to manage one’s own learning. So we spend a lot of time talking about and learning these skills, and it has a lot of structure.
Since I teach in a smaller school, I also have the benefit of teaching the same kids for three years in multiple subjects and across disciplines. So for many of the students in that Chem. class, it was there 5th or 6th class with me -that makes a big difference.
But there have been times, even with my more experienced students, that I haven’t gotten the amount of structure & support right. I’ve made the assumption that because my students were adept at inquiry & PBL in an ELA classroom, they would be just as skilled in a science classroom. I was wrong, and it was disastrous. We had to sit down and talk through what they needed for support.I have to admit we’ve learned a lot of this by how not to do it.
I agree with your second point. I’m not sure we’re going to get to a place anytime soon that will allow students to explore exactly what they want, when they want. Until then, I think it’s important to try to provide students with as much choice as we can within the structure we’ve been given.
I read nearly the entire comment thread looking for this response, Shelley. Frankly, I was hoping not to find it, actually. Let me explain. I have not flipped my physics classes exactly, but we are a 1:1 program, and almost all of our curricular materials are available to the students online (much of this is my screencasts).
We are new to this, but my experience is paralleling that of many others I learn about online. Not all students are ready to drive their own instruction. More specifically, the higher achieving students love self-paced, question-driven instruction, and lower achieving students are often crippled by it.
I keep hoping that we can prove the research wrong (or simply add a new dimension) by adding the x factor of ubiquitously available digital curricular materials. But research suggests that struggling learners, and this has been particularly true of students of color living in poverty (50% of the population that I teach) benefit more from direct instruction than from project based or problem based models that put the onus of executive function on the student.
Tell me if I am making incorrect assumptions, but I inferred that since you are experiencing success in your chemistry class with student centered instruction, and since you are unable to replicate this in your grade 10 classes, that your struggles might be similar? What does your student body look like (title 1)? How big are your classes?
It’s not that my students can’t do it in grade 10, most don’t have the skills, so we spend a lot of our grade 10 year developing those skills. I’ve been surprised how many students lack basic self-regulatory skills because schools don’t tend to teach them.
Once kids acquire these, they can become highly successful at student-centred learning. But I think trying to implement this type of classroom without trying to shore up skill deficits could be disasterous.
Research tends to show that higher achieving students have self-regulatory skills. Many lower achieving students tend to be missing many of these, which is why schools really need to teach them K-12.
My class demographics tend to be pretty middle class, although we do have kids who live in poverty. My class sizes tend to average around 25.
Shelly & Jack: My classroom is passed being a textbook flipped classroom (pun intended), but has not yet evolved to become like Shelly’s post-flipped classroom. Teachers should consider the following with each potential flipped class:
1. technical skills
2. level of motivation
3. level of goal-orientation
4. maturity & autonomy
Even without all of these, it could still be worthwhile. For example, maybe the “top” students enjoy the challenge and responsibility of moving “ahead”. This still leaves more time for the teacher to work with students who did not fully buy-into the flipped classroom (i.e., students who don’t watch the videos at home, etc.).
I think perhaps the first thing you have to do is stop calling it Algebra class. Seriously, the naming of the class is the key step in determining what will be taught there.
But of course, there’s a curriculum that we have to cover, right? I don’t think having a set of general plans is a bad thing. I don’t want my surgeon to have “whatever”-ed his way through a groovy med school that let students dissect dandelions.
I think we can indeed strike a happy balance between required subject matter and student-centered learning. Here’s what you have to learn, now how can you go about learning it in a way that’s going to have permanence for you?
I think I was most excited about how students helped one another and fluidly moved between and among groupings to achieve their goals.
Diane: I agree with the notion of “…a happy balance between required subject matter and student-centered learning”. For example, in math, we should identify a core of basic numeric literacy skills that every student should learn. Beyond that, we should let students choose how deep they want to get into the various math tracks. We should not force K-12 students to spend equal time on all subjects (save a few electives in G11/12). A high school student should be able to decide to do less math and spend more time writing, etc. But, with colleges dictating the K-12 finish line….
What kind of advice would you give to a college professor, willing to ‘flip’ the way you did, to a student-centred learning, with a group of more than 60 students in the same classroom? I have been trying to figure it out for a a few months…
I have to admit, I don’t have experience with a group that size, but Michael Wesch does. Here’s a couple of links that may help you to imagine what it could look like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZqSTaSWU8E&feature=related
What did you use for the online textbook? Wikia? Wikispaces?
What guidelines, boundaries, and expectations were helpful for students?
Thank you for sharing.
We used wikispaces, since it’s incredibly easy to use. Some of my classes had authoring privileges for the wiki, others did not. My students knew that I could check every edit that was made to the wiki, and they respected that. I never had any inappropriate material posted.
Shelley I congratulate you and admire you for sharing your learning with the world. This a fantastic example of how teachers also are learning and need time to develop deeper understanding of teaching and learning. I remember reading your article on flipping from last year and used many times to help teachers understand the benefits of flipping at our school. Interesting enough, we experienced many of the success’s and challenges as you did, but are starting to evolve our thinking as well. This article will be very helpful in this process.
Thanks for sharing my work with others. I appreciate it. It’s interesting how teachers share many common experiences, even though we might teach different subjects and grades, and how when we struggle we seek to evolve our teaching to something new. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Again I am inspired by your voice. I appreciate your giving an more detailed example of what it could look like. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you!
The concept of the flipped classroom is just that. Flipping what you normally do in the classroom with what you normally assign as homework. A different way of doing what you already do, just flipping it. Student centered instruction is not flipping the classroom, it is STUDENT CENTERED INSTRUCTION, which can be accomplished using any methiod a teacher can construct, includding the flipped classroom concept.
Wonderful ideas! I can certainly relate to the notion of students owning their learning vs. “the latest fad in education”. I have often said that administration needs to allow teachers more time to teach using advanced learning skills instead of their latest fads. I wonder how this learning assists students with learning disabilities. Would LD students be self-motivated enough to grasp this type of learning?
I’ve had a number of students with various types of LD in my classes. Some of them have really thrived in a pbl/inquiry class, in ways I couldn’t have imagined at the outset. One of my students, who had always struggled academically, was the lead thinker when we built our Holocaust museum. He knew how to build everything, and his peers supported and helped him. He took a great deal of pride in his work.
What I like about inquiry is that it’s about developing skills, and not necessarily about academics. It’s about learning, and all kids, even those with LD’s can learn. It just looks different.
Hi Shelley,
Thank you so much for this exciting, well crafted blog post. I love how you think, teach and think about teaching. I also love how you write. I am currently soliciting essays and stories by teachers for a compilation book call Keeping the Faith in Education. I will be editing the project.
I would be honored if you would consider submitting an essay or story about the end of your love affair with the flipped classroom.
http://avenidabooks.com/submissions/
Thanks again,
Ellie
Thanks so much for the offer. I’d love to be part of your project!
That is great news Shelley!
If you have any additional questions, please be in touch with me via my email or at info@avenidabooks.com.
Please feel free to share the project link with comrades as well,
Ellie
Hi Shelley,
Thanks for this post. You’re right about Alfie Kohn’s work – much of his material would surprise hard working teachers. You might be interested in this link to a slide show I made re his book “Feel -bad education” which certainly made me think a little more about my practice. http://nbnotewell.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/well-duh-alfie-kohn.html
I’m not sure that I agree that you haven’t flipped your classroom though – you’ve flipped the concept that you are the source of all wisdom and that you need to control / direct your students. You may not be “flipped” in the “Traditional” sense (is it apt to call something so recent “traditional”?) but you are certainly flipping traditional roles and methods. More power to you. Thanks for sharing your insights
Thanks, Neville! I think it depends on how one defines the flip. It tends to be a bit of a moving target! I guess what I’m speaking of here is the traditional flip and how it disappeared, rather than roles. I see my classroom as being an inquiry/pbl classroom, rather than flipped. I think it’s possible to have a learner-centred classroom without ever needing to use the flip.
Thank you so much for this exciting
I find it interesting that you consider “flipped classroom” to simply be sending lectures home for students to do. I think this is a complete misrepresentation of the intentions of “flipping”. The general concept is that the flip is not in actually sending the “classroom home” and doing homework in class, but instead, it’s a flip in roles. Students become their own teachers–with the goal being to produce active learners rather than passive ones. That, to me, is what a flipped classroom embodies. The methods of doing such a class could involve self-paced content (that doesn’t necessarily mean videos), differentiation that involves student choice, starting with assessment, teachers as learning facilitators rather than learning directors. I think the definition of “flipped” has changed and by the looks of it, you have not eliminated the “flip” but you have embraced it and maybe even transcended it. Keep up the good work!
From what I’ve seen, there are varying definitions as to what the flipped classroom is. Some, like you, see it as giving control to the students. Others, see it in a much more limited way, as simply reversing the order of instruction and homework. I like the definition you use, but not the one that simply rearranges the traditional model. I think we can do better than that for our students. Thanks for reading!
Thank you for a well-written and thoughtful as well as thought provoking post. I began flipping a year ago in a college prep ESL writing class at a community college and have been learning as I go. I like your evolution and many of the ideas shared by your respondents. I have found my experience flipping the writing class has changed how I teach other classes. I have been thinking about how I would share my experiences with interested colleagues, and I was thinking that I might use a large deodorant container to represent the biggest difference for me . Now, I spend so much time around the students that the front part of the room gets neglected. Thank you for this dose of re-energizing.
I, too, started with changing one class. They were small changes at first, but eventually they irrevocably changed the atmosphere of our classroom. It’s been interesting that as I’ve given up control to my students, I can’t imagine ever wanting to take it back. It’s completely altered the way I think about teaching and learning.
Terrific article and ideas! Thank you for sharing this.
I have done something similar in my physics classroom using a constructivist approach called ‘Knowledge Building’. A key outcome to constructivist approaches like these is ultimately assessment of learning. What approaches did you use to determine the outcomes of their learning? Were you able to compare this with outcomes prior to ‘flipping’ your classroom in the unique way you describe? Constructivist approaches are great for the kids. The really enjoy the freedom of choice and collaboration they afford. But can we measure outcomes (and we need to) that supports the approach you are suggesting compared to more traditional approaches?
A great reflection on “Flipped” learning. You have truly showed the hallmarks of a great teacher/learner/educator – try something out, see if it works then adapt to circumstances.
I agree with your points about homework/technology/online learning at home: one of my students said to me “Sir, why do I want to be online watching school videos at home? I’d rather play outside or spend time with friends”
It’s amazing how kids can be so funny & astute at the same time with their observations!
Shelly,
I appreciate your ideas and evaluation of your class. However, I don’t believe you’ve abandoned Flipped Learning, but are an example of a successful flipped experience.
I find it very intriguing when you say “Of course, the reality is that many if not most teachers who opt for the flipped classroom strategy are not pursuing a student-centered approach to teaching and learning.”
I find the opposite to be the case. I am a vocal proponent on the flipped classroom and have met hundreds, maybe thousands, of teachers that flip. All have done so in order to be a more student-centered classroom.
Regardless of that, I found your post to be well-written and thoughtful. It’s great to see you pointing out the positive experience you had flipping your classroom and the success you had because of it.
i see this post has generated a lot of responses regarding the usefulness of the “flip.” I started experimenting with screen casting last year and I love the way it transformed my classroom. I was no longer chained to the front of the room, and we had more time for student-centered activities. I’m curious to know what level you teach (AP, honor, College Prep, etc.) Socio-economically, how diverse is your classroom? How motivated are your students and how much support do they have from home? These are questions that are rarely addressed when I see teachers pontificating about how amazingly their classrooms function and how our classrooms should look just like theirs. What I’ve come to realize most often is that my classroom (and many others) is much different from the ones that often make me feel inadequate. I other words, the challenges I face are unique to me and so, therefore, I make the best decisions for my students. My students NEED scaffolding. They have come to me bred on worksheets and memorizing names and dates. They have little to no experience with PBL and so I would rip the floor out from under them by implementing a system such as yours which works for your students, but certainly not for all. I say all of this without even mentioning the fact that the state of PA is implementing a standardized test for my subject area within the next 2 years – Civics and Government. So, while I’d love nothing more than my classroom to be project based and to lose the memorizing, my students and I are still being pushed in that direction of traditional education, and my evaluation will now be based on their performance on that test (50%). I say all of this with respect for your opinion, and your experiences in your classroom. I think that posts like this can be needlessly divisive. If I want to make my students a 15 minute intro to political parties and have them watch it, what’s wrong with that? It works for them, and it works for me, and we still move on to more engaging activities that involve application and creativity. The bottom line is, my kids need the scaffolding. I believe that to a certain extent you need to put something in to get something it. If you have learners that are independent enough to learn on their own, and mature enough to do it at their own pace, that is wonderful, but that is not the reality of my classroom (at least not when my kids arrive in September). Until it is, I’ll continue to do what works best for my kids, even if that involves the occasional screencast and homework assignment.
Melissa: Bummer that you are hamstrung by your school environment. A few thoughts. When you mentioned “teachers pontificating”, I thought of the direct instruction model. Think about how much time and energy (nationwide) goes into teaching students a concept. In the early phases of my flipped classroom, I used to make all of my own videos. Then, it hit me. My greatest value-added service is scaffolding and helping students. The underlying assumption behind creating my own videos is that I am the BEST teacher at presenting/explaining a concept. In almost all cases, there is a better video than the one I created. To your point that, “my students NEED scaffolding”. Using videos from other sources has freed up more of my time to think about projects to foster inquiry and deep though. I now view each concept from the perspective of “how will I make it meaningful” and not “how will I teach it”.
We will have a state designed standardized test. You just said you don’t give traditional tests. That illustrates my point. I have to give common department midterms and finals, which are traditional assessments. I have no way around teaching to a test. The freedom you have is wonderful, but that is not everyone’s assessment reality. Our kids’ performance on these high stakes tests not only determine our district AYP, but now are also part of my evaluation.
I, too, have an outside assessment for my students. In both my Chem & Bio, in grade 12, my students have to write a provincial departmental final exam. It’s 50 questions, multiple choice, and worth 40% of their final mark.
I have to admit, the first year I shifted to an inquiry classroom, I worried how they would do on the exam. The truth is their marks were better than any of the previous years. I find my students definitely know their content better, and they’re much better at many of the cognitive skills they need to process information.
We spend a couple of days learning how to take an exam like that, but other than that, we don’t focus on it. But I can understand why thinking about a shift like this might be stressful for you. There’s a lot at stake, and most often, a shift like this doesn’t occur overnight, at least mine didn’t.
I like everything you say here, and this is the type of classroom that we should be striving for. But I physically cringe whenever I hear an otherwise excellent educator support the Alfie Kohn “homework myth.” Please, please, read up on Harris Cooper’s meta-analyses of the impact of homework. (http://rer.sagepub.com/content/76/1/1.short) Alfie Kohn grossly misrepresents data on homework’s impacts, and he diminishes the work of opposing researchers without really providing his own researched counterpoints, basically saying, “Their data is bad” without explaining why, and he obtusely paints with a very broad brush, casting all use of homework as the dogmatic practice of mean teachers who are behind the times.
The facts, from Cooper: Homework doesn’t show a positive or negative impact on elementary students. It shows a weak positive impact on middle level students. It shows a strong positive impact on secondary students. Cooper makes it very clear, with extensive research that very rightly punches Kohn in the mouth.
I feel like either Kohn is a really bad researcher who hasn’t analyzed the existing data well enough to come out with an accurate conclusion. Or (and what is probably more likely) he went into it with a preconceived opinion and uses parent/student anger and anecdotes, along with very selectively chosen research that he misconstrues to support his ideas and sell his books. As a scientist, I don’t like his tactics and what he does with them.
Not that students should be bombarded with homework. Again, I think that your class is what we should be doing. But I hate hearing someone incorrectly say that there is no link between homework and performance. Your students are doing “homework” in class. Aren’t they performing better than if you lectured and gave them no homework? Good homework (including “homework” done in class) that engages students and provides higher-order-thinking opportunities, works.
jkern: We had Alfie speak at our school and I came away with different messages. The first is that homework needs to be planned well and not just a few questions from the textbook. If not planned well, students will do the easier problems and skip the more complicated and worthwhile problems (“I didn’t get it”). His other point is that time outside of school SHOULD be used for more important activities other than homework. This supposes that students will engage in productive activities (i.e., reading, sports, music, theater, programming, etc.). The last is the daily feedback that we give students. In my 20 years of working (finance & education), I never got daily or intraday feedback. If I had, I would surely have focused on it instead of the longer-term goals associated with my job.
Shelley,
I’ve got to admit, I’ve jumped into the flipped classroom this year in teaching biology. I watched, listened, read and conversed with a variety of sources last school year and have been implementing it now. I hear what you are saying in many points and agree whole heartedly with the flip as a transitional step.
As an educator who has been around since the late 20th century, I’ve been energized not necessarily by the flipped idea, but by reflection and introspection on my own practice as an educator. That has been the largest benefit for my students, the fact that I reflect and think and act in a manner that will allow them to be better learners.
Call me a dope, but in addition to the flipped environment, I instituted standards based grades. Again, a move away from how I have done grading previously. You mentioned formative assessments….that is what we are living and breathing now in biology this year. My students have been playing school and most of them are pretty good at it, when we’ve discussed the fact that almost all of their work will not influence their “grade”….yikes. That has been a transition, one that will endure the year, I believe.
I appreciate the insight and conversations around your work.
Thanks!
I like the approach you outlined in this post. How do you or your students incorporate the library and its resources, including (hopefully) a licensed librarian?
Unfortunately, the school I was at didn’t have much of a library for older students. We also didn’t have a teacher-librarian, so we didn’t have that resource to tap into either. However, teacher librarians really are essential for inquiry learning. Research has shown it.
Thank you Shelly I really liked your article and i must admit I didn’t know much about flipped classroom and from the way you describe it i don’t you should move completely away from it. It can still contribute to learner centered approach if the lesson is not depending on it solely. For example when introducing a lesson one can use it, more especially in a very large class and if possible learners can record,play and rewind as a way of reminding themselves the instructions that you gave them.
Huge kudos to you and your journey! What about flipping entire districts. This what we need to figure out if we a serious about empowering our students find and pursue their gifts. This is the work we are all about and I would encourage you to take a look at our website and our book “Delivering on the Promise The Education Revolution.”
Thank you, I will!
Excellent article! I would have the same problems with the flipped classroom that you listed. Video lecture is still lecture, homework is still homework…
Students voluntarily working with each other is the real deal.
Do you have any suggestions for how to teach middle school students to be more independent learners? A colleague and I just tried to do a project with our 7th graders that involved conducting research about an organ in the human body and then creating a Glog about the organ and a disease that affects it. Students were assigned organs and were given a general notes worksheet to use as a guide. We gave students a list of recommended websites, but they were also allowed to use any other sources that they found. The goal was to have students read/watch each others’ Glogs in order to learn about the organs and systems of the human body. The project had very mixed results and students really struggled with doing their own research and learning from other students’ Glogs. I am hesitant about doing any other projects like this due to the mixed results. I feel that my students need to learn how to learn before they are ready to learn this way. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
I think it’s not unusual for most teachers to see the results that you saw the first time they try this. When that happens, it tells me that some of your students have skills they need to develop — most likely self-regulatory skills.
In my classroom, we used content and projects to learn skills. We would talk about what good research looks like, how to know if a site is reputable, and ways they learn and can show their learning. This is definitely a process that requires a gradual release of responsibility.
The teacher’s job in this classroom is to assess what skills students need to develop and then help facilitate that, rather than dispense the content.
This is one of my favourite videos that I share with my students. It’s created by a grade 7 student who is talking about her own independent learning and personal learning environment: http://youtu.be/YEls3tq5wIY It might help to stimulate discussion in your classroom.
Batya: Don’t worry about the first project…you are on the right track. This suggests to me that your students are new to working on projects, collaborating, and peer reviewing the work of others. If you are the only teacher doing these types of projects, than you will have to spend time explicitly teaching these skills. Don’t assume that students can manage their own work and collaborate productively. I am surprised by how stymied students are with “free” time. If they can’t watch a video on their laptop, they will usually ask, “what should I do?” My recommendation is to tackle each one individually on a small projects. For example, take the last 15 minutes of a class to do a focused activity. Explain clearly why you are doing the activity and the skill they will learn. When you feel comfortable, then try another project.
I teach World History at an international school in Thailand and have ‘flipped the class’ in terms of putting video ‘lectures’ online. I don’t understand the antipathy towards lectures in some quarters. They’re one more conduit of information alongside textbooks and web based information. Personally I like to increase the resources at my students disposal, not limit them, and the fact that a video includes sound, images, film and animation makes it a powerful tool to illuminate concepts – permanently at the students’ disposal. My students find having a resource of videos online explaining some broad concepts and outlining different interpretations useful for revision and as a starting point for higher order activities in class: analyzing primary sources and debating different interpretations of History.
If you have a sensible rationale and it works – do it, I say. As to the point that we shouldn’t be lecturing – don’t be a boring, over long lecturer in class or on video! Actually, recording oneself forces economy and brevity I’ve found and the multi modality of video can be a lot less dry than a textbook.
Regarding homework, I think that’s another issue altogether – though obviously connected. I’ve considered getting students to move at their own pace – which would be a lot easier now they have the video resources online. As an institution we are required to set homework however, a context which I imagine many teachers are in. I’d prefer the students mastered the ‘meat & potatoes’ at home, saving time for more PBL type activities in class. Nor, frankly do I have a strong objection to students working outside of school as long as it’s useful and not excessive, and the type of homework frees up time in class for higher order thinking.
The author of this post is no doubt a committed professionalI willing to experiment to better the learning of her students. There’s a danger inherent though, in over genaralising from one context and criticising what approaches work in encouraging and scaffolding genuine learning when a lot of teachers like myself have tried the approach and found it profoundly transformational.
Kudos to you!!!!
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So, what is the bottom line with regard to student learning? Have you seen any measurable changes in attainment of student learning outcomes as a result of this change? I suspect that if measured using some sort of standardized exam, there would probably not be too much change. (I favor “flipping” by-the-way). In the U.S., this is the common metric applied – both in K-12, and higher-ed. I’ll bet if long-term retention were measured, though, the more interactive courses would win in spades.
To be honest, I think standardized tests measure very little of what truly matters in education. Have my students done better on exams because of being in a learner-centred classroom, yes. I think it’s because they’re better at learning, adapting and problem-solving. But for me, that’s not the bottom-line. It’s their engagement and the responsibility they’ve assumed for their learning that really matters.
I love your ideas about a child centered classroom. I would like to be able to say that I check in with every child every day. I’m just wondering – how many kids are in your classes?
Depending on the class, usually between 20-25 students.
Ah, but standardized tests and metrics don’t measure real learning, so the point might be moot.
I guess I have been “flipping” for a while without knowing it: Students practice speeches during class, gather research in the library, work together to present the unit content to me and to one another, create visual aids or metaphors to turn in as proof of learning, discuss literary works in workshop sessions, and do all sorts of fun and noisy things during class. I walk around and guide or help unstick students, but everything we do is active and student-driven. I might lecture for 20 minutes somewhere in the middle of a 3 hour or 4 hour class based on questions they ask about the material, but for the most part, everything is one on one (or one on group, depending on the class size).
I’m a fan of eureka moments.
@Amy:
Totally agree, and my comparable sentiment about helping students learn is that they should be “more wow-makers, less test-takers”.
Just a small note from someone “outside” the educational field: There’s a in many ways similar concept gaining lots of momentum in my industry (IT), called Scrum. The scum method replaces the traditional hierarchical project management approaches in every corner these days. Also, it’s main focus is on empowering the team (and re-defining the traditional project manager’s role).
While I totally agree with your POV, I find it interesting to consider that if the flipped form of teaching hadn’t occurred, we wouldn’t have nearly as many resources to move forward in the method you now use to teach. Interesting!
My first training as a teacher in PBL was in 2004 and in using blogs was 2006. Flipped instruction looks very good but I think a “balance” of 21st century skills, PBL, flipped instruction, and web 2.0 is the way to go and it sounds like that is what you have going on in your classroom.
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I’m curious how this factors into grading – not formative assessments, but those summative assessments that have to be recorded in a gradebook and reported out to parents and other stakeholders. Do you all give letter grades on reports or are you standards-based?
Hi,
I feel like you have great points and the flipped classroom sounds great in principle. However, I am currently in a flipped classroom chemistry class and I hate it. I definitely feel like if done right it could work, however not every teacher or every school has the capability to make it work.
Just some food for thought, almost every person in the top 30% of my class cannot stand the flipped classroom. I don’t know why, it might be the teacher, it might just be us weirdos, but almost no one in the upper levels and especially honors classes like it.
To be completely honest I just don’t feel like the information sticks in my head at all. Personally I love structure and due dates, and without them I don’t feel motivated to do any work. However, the group work is nice. This is coming from an 11th grade student who has had structured regular classes all her life. Just some food for thought.
I used student-centered learning since 1997 in my anthro courses. However, flip class learning is different. Students want to learn from knowledgeable teachers, not watch videos of them. Flip doesn’t work for many reasons, including long learning curve times; little mastery of concise standard bodies of knowledge; student stress over whether they’re understanding the subject matter, etc. Its time to stop fooling around and move toward small classrooms, more teachers who are well trained, and less time wasted with talking about subject matter and more time learning it.
Do you have any texts or a website that would guide us newbies through your flipped curriculum?
Hi Shelley,
I really enjoy reading your blog and have already started to think a lot deeper about how I can change the way my classes are structured.
How do you think inquiry driven and project based learning would look in higher education? I have started shifting from traditional lecturing but would like to do more. I teach a microbiology course at a community college in which the majority of my students are hoping to enter nursing or dental hygiene programs. Myself and other micro instructors use the case method in order to expose students to real life scenarios. They need to be able to apply the content to real life. This I know is key for my class.
The problem is I only get 1 semester (4 months) with my students and then the next batch comes in. We couldn’t spend 2 months on one unit on major projects and I only see them for about 2.5 hours a week in lecture. I do incorporate technology for assessment, some role playing of the immune system and group work on mini white boards but most days I talk. I have students present in 3-5 minutes at the beginning of class on a organism they’ve read about in the media and how it relates to human health, but all the other students are so disengaged during the presentations that it’s just another assignment for them. It’s fun for me but I am not sure there’s a greater benefit.
Do you think the structure of your classes would look different if these were sophomores studying science in college? If so, how?
As a student, what I like about flipping is getting rid of the lecture which is inefficient and passive. I don’t think a video is needed at home either. Instead, READ THE TEXTBOOK (actively, working the example problems) and then work the homework.
In class, the time could be used for practicing problems, recitation and Q&A, labs, or select enrichment (e.g. “war stories” on the chemistry, economic aspects, in the news).
I’m not a fan of constructivist chemistry. If I wanted to review a course, it would not help me. If I wanted to learn it from scratch, it would be inefficient.
1983 AP (5), chem major, practicing engineer, back for a Ph.D. in chem.
Good afternoon,
My name is Deb Ragone, and I am a substitute teacher for the Bellevue Public School District in Bellevue, NE. I am in the process of gathering research for one of my master’s classes at Peru State College. My assignment is to conduct an interview on the topic of the Flipped Classroom. I feel your opinions and experience would be valuable to my project. I am hoping you might be willing to answer a few questions at your convenience. I can send the five question interview to you directly.
I can be reached at dragoneteach@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance for you time.
–
Deborah Ragone
Bellevue Public Schools
This is very interesting, thank you Shelley. Do you think flipped learning could potentially act as a stepping stone to greater and greater levels of student autonomy in the learning process, as you describe happening with PBL and inquiry? It seems that the flipped classroom allowed you to focus on teaching your students how to learn, which prepared them for taking more ownership of their learning, and developed their sense of self-efficacy.
As a college instructor of College Algebra, I “flipped” my classroom, using videos and video quizzes. The result was not impressive! But, rather than abandon it all, I fine-tuned it. I created video printouts, I gave extra attempts on the quizzes, I did mini-lectures on the content before doing group work, and instead of burying my students with all kinds of out-of-class work, I scaled back, doing some of that “out-of-class” work in class. So instead of assigning 2 sections, I might assign 1 section and then, if time, start the second section in class. So we still have the benefits of flipping, but without the pain – and yes it is “pain” to be assigned several sections in addition to completing homework assignments and prepping for a weekly quiz!
I have an APUSH classroom with a Flipped style. Except that it isn’t flipped.
Students have to spend an average of two hours every night on reading a giant textbook (150 pages every unit) and fourty one-paragraph notecards (due two weeks before the actual test) every three or four weeks. And in class, we are assigned busy work such as movie posters and giant charts that teach us how to make charts, not the actual content. And said content is not on the test–all test content stems from book reading. None of the notecards or work in class provide any help on the test, only trivial facts from the book is tested.
In the end, the Flipped classroom can either be better or somehow even worse than the horrific Common Core/NCLB.
Thank you for sharing your experiences! I found this while researching flipped classrooms for an education class I am taking. However, your article made me think of homeschooling. I homeschooled two of my children for a few years and always wished I’d been able to do more. One of my favorite things about it was letting the kids lead and be able to do things how they needed. Even though I plan on teaching elementary, you give me hope that education can be more about the kids than the teacher or the system.
I’m curious to know how the students fared on the exams. Also, I’m not sure how the proposed approach is any better than the traditional one.
For instance, I followed an introductory finance course last semester. Our goal was to learn how to estimate the net present value of various investment projects. In class, the teacher explained to us how to do some relevant calculations, and completed exercises and demonstrations on the white board while we listened, took notes and asked questions. We then went home, reviewed our notes and the teacher’s powerpoint presentations, read the assigned textbook chapter, did the exercises and verified our answers against those at the end of the textbook. Before each exam, the teacher gave us some problems from previous years exams (along with answers) to study and prepare. The whole experience was very instructive. We got a lot of practice throughout, as well as valuable explanations and demonstrations from the teacher, which complemented our textbook readings. We did no teamwork in class ; students needing help sometimes contacted their classmates but the teacher himself more so. Nor did the teacher ask us to solve problems in class. Still, today I know how to estimate the net present value of an investment project. What we learned corresponds to what financial managers actually do in their jobs. And everyone respected the teacher and enjoyed the class. Very few people dropped out and the grades were as usual : some people had good grades, most had average grades, some had poor grades. This is normal, because not all students have the same potential for growth under the circumstances.
Lecturing is an important part of teaching. Not only are students amazed by the knowledge and skills of a great teacher, students also benefit immensely from seeing an expert in action and by studying his thought processes. They also benefit from studying a quality textbook. What is the point in letting students find their own ressources? Such a waste of time! The teacher should know which ressources are best and direct students to these immediately so they don’t wander around for nothing on the internet. Of course, students must pratice, and practice a lot. But practice (i.e. student activity) is part of the traditional approach as much as the lecture. Students practice at home, not in class, and by themselves, because at home (or at the library, or wherever it is best to practice) they can progress at their own pace and avoid being distracted by other students. Finally, teamwork isn’t an end in and of itself. Most expertises are best practiced alone, not as part of a team. Students can benefit from learning from one another, but only if one student is much better than the other. Two novices are wasting their time teaching each other ; how could they teach something they haven’t learned yet?
So my point is : the traditional model works fine.
If students fail, it can be because teachers don’t correctly apply the traditional model, or because the class is too hard, or because the students don’t care and have other priorities. If the difficulty level is normal, if students care and if the teacher is skilled, I think the traditional model of teaching is the best model there is.
I know I sound conservative, but something isn’t good just because it is new, and something isn’t bad just because it is old. Sometimes we should stick with something old that works and let trendy novelties pass us by.
Hi Micael. It looks like the course you took was post-secondary and directed to the adult learner. This article is talking about high school learners, I believe. I actually think that in post-secondary is where flipped learning can shine. A college-level math class, for instance, may only be held once or twice a week. Those videos are precious resources when you live far from campus, have a part-time job, and can’t get in to math lab for help. Granted, back in ‘real’ class, our brilliant prof still had a chance to lecture and shine. She reviewed her content briefly, went over all our questions we asked her during the week through the Google Doc she sent, and then introduced what we were going to view next. Brilliant way to learn college-level math.