Flipping Classrooms
From Elizabeth Murray
 As Project Manager of MIT BLOSSOMS, I often have the opportunity to speak with high school teachers from across the country. During these conversations, I have been surprised by the number of teachers who want to flip their classrooms, and even more surprised by the number of schools requiring teachers to flip. Still on the fence myself as to whether this movement is anything more than a fad, I decided to dive in a bit more deeply. I found a great place to begin this dive in the report, "A Review of Flipped Learning," designed to guide teachers and administrators through the concepts of flipped classrooms and provide definitions and examples of flipped learning in action. This report, put together by educators at George Mason University and Pearson, presents the following comprehensive definition of a flipped classroom:
“In the Flipped Learning model, teachers shift direct learning out of the large group learning space and move it into the individual learning space, with the help of one of several technologies. Teachers record and narrate screencasts of work they do on their computer desktops, create videos of themselves teaching, or curate video lessons from internet sites such as TED-Ed and Khan Academy. Many educators start flipping their classroom by using these readily available materials. The videos or screencasts are available for students to access whenever and wherever it is convenient, as many times as they like, enabling them to come to class better prepared. Capitalizing on the students’ preparation, teachers can devote more time to opportunities for integrating and applying their knowledge, via a variety of student-centered, active learning strategies such as conducting research or working on projects with classmates.”
The report also identifies key features of flipped classrooms that are critical to allowing Flipped Learning to occur:
- Flexible environments: Teachers must expect that class time will be "somewhat chaotic and noisy" and that timelines and expectations for learning assessments will have to be flexible as well.
- Culture shift: The classroom becomes student-centered. According to the guide: "Students move from being the product of teaching to the center of learning, where they are actively involved in knowledge formation through opportunities to participate in and evaluate their learning in a manner that is personally meaningful."
- Intentional content: Teachers are required to evaluate what they need to teach directly so that classroom time can be used for other methods of teaching, such as "active learning strategies, peer instruction, problem-based learning, or mastery or Socratic methods, depending on grade level and subject matter."
- Professional educators: The instructional videos used for flipped classroom cannot replace trained, professional teachers.
The report goes on to provide references to research supporting the teaching methods used in flipped classrooms and includes three case studies focusing on flipped classrooms in action at the high school and college levels. It also includes survey results on the perceptions from teachers, administrators and parents on the flipped style of education.
With this report as a start, I ventured out into the social network sphere to explore what was being said. Most of the blog reflections I read describe how the flipped classroom has truly individualized learning for students. Teachers describe how "students can now move at their own pace, how they can review what they need when they need to, and how the teacher is then freed up to work one-on-one with students on the content they most need support with." Many teachers report that learning became much more active after flipping their classrooms and that their students are more likely to engage in collaborative learning and peer education.
However, this model certainly has its critics. Many people feel that the flipped classroom is an easy model to get wrong because an effective flip requires careful preparation. Recording lectures involves effort and time on the part of a teacher, and the out-of-class videos and in-class elements must be carefully matched to motivate students to prepare for class. For their part, students have been known to complain about the loss of face-to-face lectures, particularly if they feel the assigned video lectures are available to anyone online. Also, even where students embrace the model, their equipment and access might not always support rapid delivery of video, thus increasing the Digital Divide. Finally, what happens if everyone starts flipping their classrooms and students end up spending hours every night in front of a screen?
So what conclusions did I come to? Do I still think flipping the classroom is just a fad? In the end, I agree with the conclusion of the report cited above: “The Flipped Learning model should by no means be thought of as a panacea for solving all educational issues, but rather can be one way to create a classroom environment that is learner-centered.” This model is compelling teachers to reflect on their practice, change the way they've always done things and rethink how they reach their students. In my opinion, such reflection on practice can only be a good thing!
Elizabeth Murray is Project Manager of the MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative.
Back to newsletter |
