Make The Flip!?

Being part of the education system during times of such connectivity allows educators to collaborate and develop in ways that were not possible before the 21st century.  Educators can now connect via the web and share classroom ideas, materials, theories…etc. through what seems like an endless amount of platforms.  With such resources comes new pedagogical approaches.  As internet has seen its way into the majority of society’s homes, the educator’s practices are now not as restricted.  A pedagogical approach that has been born from less restrictions is that known as the flipped classroom.  The flipped classroom is continuing to grow within the education field, as many educators are beginning to adopt and implement such techniques.  Over the past few years, not only have some colleagues made the flip, but more and more interest is being generated by the new and innovative approach.

The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that limits the teacher’s direct instruction approaches.  Instead of students receiving direct instruction from their classroom teacher, they receive it from assigned work outside of school.  Thus, class time becomes much more student centered.  As stated by Graney (2013), “What happens in the flipped classroom revolves around the learners’ needs.”  Being an educator in New York and having to meet our annual professional performance review (APPR) needs, in order to truly be a highly successful teacher our classroom must be extremely student centered (based on New York's requisites).  Scoring highly effective is a “piece of cake” when utilizing such a student centered approach as the flipped classroom.  With students partaking in the direct instruction aspect of topics at home, during class time teachers are able to spend time helping students that might be struggling, clarifying to a group a certain aspect that is troubling them, or working with an individual one on one.  Not only do more students get their needs met in the classroom, they also are able to work at their own pace outside of the classroom as well.  Graney (2013) states, “By moving instruction outside of class, learners gain control over their learning. Learners who get lost in class as the teacher explains more quickly than they can process can now stop the video and review.”  

Although not the only technique, utilizing videos as the instructional aids for assigned tasks at home has become a very popular practice with the flipped classroom.  Thus, being familiar with resources to find and tailor such media is very beneficial to the overall success with the flipped classroom.  Educators should not only limit themselves to using already made videos, as creating such videos can prove to be a useful process as well.  To find pre-made videos TedEd, YouTube, ShowMe, Khan Academy…etc. are all great tools to get started.  To create videos, educators might think about utilizing a screen casting applications such as Sceencast-O-Matic, or the screen recording function that is now available with the iOS 11 update.  Windows Movie Maker and iMovie are great starting points for movie editing tools as well.  With that said, implementing the flipped classroom into your everyday practices can truly give you an opportunity to meet all of your learners’ needs.

Not only can flipping the classroom provide a more effective learning opportunity for the general education student, but such approaches have also been understood to increase English language learners’ (ELLs), struggling students’, and advanced students’ content comprehension as well.  As Marshall (2013) states, “For ELs, it is equally about the videos and the in-class portion because the videos provide comprehensible input that students might otherwise not be able to access.”  Those students who are struggling are able to not only take their appropriate pacing at home, but during in-class sessions students are able to clarify content that has posed difficult to them with their educator.  Graney (2013), discussing this understanding of in-class time states, “The activities may elicit the misunderstandings, they may take the students deeper into the subject, and they should provide students with opportunities to learn or relearn the elements of the lessons that they find difficult.”  An approach that I find intriguing is that advanced learners can help with the creation of instructional videos.  Why not allow those students who need more of a challenge help in the creation of course material?  You not only provide such students with a deeper learning experience, but you also lessen your work load!

With the flipped learning approach comes more, or as I like to look at it different, work.  Not only do educators have to plan in different ways, but students quickly realize that they too have to approach their studies slightly different.  As Graney (2013) states, “The students used to ‘playing school’ successfully may find the approach frustrating as it makes demands beyond simply having the correct answer.”  This understanding makes absolute rational sense, as most likely the only education students have received before entering a flipped classroom involved more traditional approaches.  Lets face it, traditional approaches are less focused around deep learning and more geared towards memorization, as students very seldom truly remember much from previous years.  Just the other day I began a social studies unit, and what I thought would be review for Geography content ended up being the focus of my planning for the entire rest of the week.  Flipping the classroom puts more accountability on the students as well, as they are responsible for their studies outside of the classroom.  It is very easy to tell whether a student is being responsible outside of the classroom, in terms of academics, because their contributions, questions, and overall content understandings will show during in-class sessions.  Providing students with the opportunity to grow in accountability, responsibility, and overall academic success will certainly benefit students in their college and career endeavors.  As an educator thinking about flipping your classroom, I recommend a slow transition.  Get to know and become comfortable with the technology you will be using.  Take your current direct instruction lessons and begin to make resources your students can utilize outside of the classroom.  Join professional learning networks such as the Flipped Learning Global Initiative.  Overall, enjoy teaching in such an awesome and connected epoch of society!

References

Graney, J. (2013). Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer. TESOL Connections. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolc/issues/2013-10-01/3.html.

Marshall, H. (2013). Three Reasons To Flip Your Classroom. TESOL International Association. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolbeis/issues/2013-08-28/6.html.