Wednesday, 13 August, 2014 - 00:00
Category: 
Activities

The flipped classroom describes a reversal of traditional teaching where students gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then class time is used to do the harder work of assimilating that knowledge through strategies such as problem-solving, discussion or debates. (Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching).


The purpose of flipping the classroom is to shift from passive to active learning to focus on the higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Bloom). As explained in this short video, Flipping the Classroom: Simply Speaking (Penn State), students access key content individually (or in small groups) prior to class time and then meet face-to-face in the larger group to explore content through active learning and engagement strategies.


There are many permutations of what a flipped classroom will look like and depends on variables such as class size, resources, support and readiness to change. At UQ, several teachers across the faculties have already flipped their classrooms.


In the flipped classroom, the roles and expectations of students and teachers change where:

  • students take more responsibility for their own learning and study core content either individually or in groups before class and then apply knowledge and skills to a range of activities using higher order thinking,
  • teaching 'one-to-many' focuses more on facilitation and moderation than lecturing, though lecturing is still important. Significant learning opportunities can be gained through facilitating active learning, engaging students, guiding learning, correcting misunderstandings and providing timely feedback using a variety of pedagogical strategies,
  • there is a greater focus on concept exploration, meaning making and demonstration or application of knowledge in the face-to-face setting (see Diagram 1 below).

 

Diagram 1: Learning opportunities of the flipped classroom (adapted from Gerstein)


Educational technologies
(see Diagram 2) are an im
portant feature of the flipped classroom as they can be used to:

  • capture key content for students to access at their own convenience and to suit their pace of learning (e.g. lecture material, readings, interactive multimedia),
  • present learning materials in a variety of formats to suit different learner styles (e.g. text, videos, audio, multimedia),
  • provide opportunities for discourse and interaction in and out of class (e.g. polling tools, discussion tools, content creation tools),
  • convey timely information, updates and reminders for students (e.g micro-blogging, announcement tools),
  • provide immediate and anonymous feedback for teachers and students (e.g. quizzes, polls) to signal revision points,
  • capture data about students to analyse their progress and identify ‘at risk’ students (e.g. analytics).

Diagram 2: Key elements of a flipped classroom (Strayer)

 

 

 

Source http://www.uq.edu.au