Flipped Classroom: Does it work?
The flipped classroom idea is a fairly recent teaching method, which is made possible by advances in technological innovations in education and driven by the growing interest among practitioners to apply a more student-centred teaching approach. In a student-centred approach, students are actively involved in the co-creation of knowledge. They should not be passive recipients of knowledge in the classroom.
The idea behind flipped classroom is quite intriguing, i.e., classroom time should be used optimally to engage students in deeper kinds of learning. Instead of spending time introducing or explaining basic concepts during classroom sessions, the teacher uses classroom time to help students further extend and enrich their initial understanding of the teaching materials.
This is where technology comes in handy. A few days before the f2f lesson, the teacher uploads course materials (e.g., recorded lecture notes, course readings and other online resources) onto a digital platform (e.g., Wakelet, a digital platform that allows users to save, organize and share contents). Tech tools such as EdPuzzle or Padlet can be used to support students’ asynchronous learning of the materials.
Students read/view the course materials and discuss these online with their classmates before they come to class.
During the f2f session, the teacher and students jointly explore the concepts further in terms of their theoretical adequacy, experiential relevance and educational applications. Experts believe that if done properly, we can expect deeper and more robust kind of learning.
Like any new idea in education, some people embrace it enthusiastically while others are not so thrilled. Which I think is quite normal.
I’ve been sitting on the fence as I was not so sure how this new approach can help my pre- and in-service teachers.
But this semester I have decided to give it a try with my undergraduate course called “Understanding Reading”. I am quite pleased with the way my flipped classroom is going. My students typically spend a couple of hours reading and responding to online tasks. Their responses are delightfully thoughtful, which demonstrates their good understanding of the materials.
During the f2f sessions, they eagerly participate in class discussions where they bound ideas, clarify concepts, question and debate contentious points, make multiple connections and explore educational applications with me. This type of classroom interaction is not usually seen in the more traditional lecture-style lesson that I used to do.
I describe below some of the features of my flipped classroom:
- I use an easy to use tech tool called Wakelet. It’s a digital storage that we can use to organize and share information with others. I can upload pdf documents, images and video materials etc.
- I send my weekly Wakelet task to the students a few days before the f2f lesson. Students read/view the materials and respond to the discussion questions that I prepare in Wakelet.
- So far so good. My undergrad students are highly motivated and intelligent and they do spend quite a bit of time (around 1-2 hours) reading and responding to my discussion prompts.
- During the f2f session, I engage students in intensive discussions about the materials helping them explore, extend and elaborate their initial understanding of the concepts.
It is too early to tell if my flipped classroom is a big success; but early indication is that my students seem to enjoy the learning that happen before, during and after the lesson. I too find this method of teaching exciting.
A word of caution. This teaching method requires a lot more preparation than the normal f2f only lesson. But it is time worth spending, if we truly want to students to learn more from our lesson.
There are a lot of tech tools that we can use to organize a flipped classroom. The key consideration is that the tool should be student- and teacher-friendly. This often means that the tool is easy to use and freely available. Wakelet for example is so easy to use. You can log in using your FB or Google account and share the link with your students. You and your students can add text, insert web links, upload youtube videos, upload pdf files, etc. without having to install the app in your laptop or mobile gadget.
Other useful tech tools for your flipped lessons can be found in the Edutopia blog here.
Happy trying!!