Have you ever heard of a flipped classroom? I hadn’t until this week. With most of my traditional learning long in the rear view, and my trek to become an educator just beginning, I was pretty excited when I started to dig into this topic. The article I read, by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams breaks it down as a change from standing and talking at a group of students for thirty to sixty minutes at a time to more of a learning coach. By taking their lectures and turning them into viewable content online they turn classroom time into a period for answering questions, working with small groups, and helping to guide individual students. That kind of agility in the classroom allows you to take a struggling student or students and have an impromptu tutorial of the subject matter with those that need it most.
This shift in role for the teacher also allows them more time for observation from the teacher and collaboration among the students. I was in a military training program where the setup was similar to this with a significant amount of peer to peer learning. While the teacher will always be the subject matter expert in the classroom, the connection that students from the same peer have can lead to alternative, but still highly effective pathways to learning.
Jonathan and Aaron believe that much of the success of the model comes from students identifying learning as their goal, instead of the completion of assignments. They have found the response from students to be tremendously positive, though for some it takes time, when they shift their view of class work from busywork to meaningful activities.
Have any of you taught in a flipped classroom? Learned in one? Please share your experiences, the good and bad.
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