I think flipped learning is an effective instructional strategy, but that teachers should adopt it voluntarily only if it fits their instructional style and from their view meets the needs of their students.

I think one of the major advantages of flipping the classroom is the opportunity to differentiate instruction for students. Differentiating instruction is a difficult challenge but an incredibly important one to tackle. By delivering content knowledge directly to students at home, students can pause or take as much time as needed to process the information (MadDrawProductions). By freeing up class time, teachers can focus on working with each student individually or in groups to meet their needs. Students that are struggling to understand the content or activities can receive remedial practice, whereas advanced students can be given more challenging activities to extend their learning. A potential issue that can arise from this is what happens if students don’t complete the task that is assigned at home? From my experience, there is a correlation between low performing students and homework completion. It’s important that flipping the classroom doesn’t exacerbate this problem. This is why I think it is important to accurately assess their own students to determine if flipping the classroom is something that will work for their particular student population. A significant concern of mine for flipping the classroom is incentive/motivation for the students to do the homework. When exploring this topic previously in another class, advocates for flipped learning often recommend having the students complete a quiz or assignment that would count for a grade to ensure that students completed the work at home. My school recently adopted standards based grading system, which means that only summative tasks (max 4 tasks a quarter) can count as graded assignments. Homework cannot by definition count for a grade. It becomes a problem if I’m reserving the key content to be completed at home if many students lack the motivation or incentive to complete that (homework completion in general has become an issue with adopting the standards based grading framework). Of course this would be reflected when they finally do their summatives, but that requires discipline and forward thinking on the part of the individual student. My experience is that high achieving students possess these qualities and generally do well no matter what instructional method is used. My concern is for the students that need that extra guidance, structure, motivation, and frequent reinforcement to complete work on a day-to-day basis. This is why I think that although flipping the classroom is valuable instructional strategy, it is important that it remains in the discretion of the teacher to determine if and how to implement it based on their schools needs.

A second major advantage of flipping the classroom is that it utilizes 21st technology, which serves to develop these skills in students and taps into their interest. I agree with the point made by the founders of flipped classrooms, Bergmann and Sams, that it taps into the tech savvy of students and speaks their language by having them use online lectures or materials (2012). While flipping the classroom may have started with recording online lectures (Bergmann and Sams), I think the possibilities for delivering the content are only limited by web 2.0 technology itself. I think this will provide a rich learning environment for students and give teachers a lot of options to creatively deliver content. One of the limitations to this is of course that not all students have consistent access to the internet. This is a significant issue that the instructor must consider. In the past, of used elements of the flip learning model by assigning a reading (print copy) for content knowledge purposes at home with the intention of having a class discussion or some other more engaging activity during class time, rather than using class time for reading. This is admittedly a very low-tech form of flipped learning, but like many other educators, my students have limited access to the Internet at home. I think this again supports the idea that it must be up to teachers to determine how and to what extent they can or should integrate flipped classroom strategies into their instruction.

In conclusion, I think that the flipped classroom instructional strategy is effective and is a great way to incorporate web 2.0 technologies into instruction. Having said that, I think it is imperative that teachers have discretion in deciding if and how to implement flipped learning into their classrooms based off of their personal teaching styles, what they teach, and the needs of their particular student population. I am for the voluntary and gradual adoption of flipped learning strategies. I am however skeptical of top-down efforts of mandated adoption in schools or districts. What works for some, doesn’t always work for others. Too often in education, central authorities make decisions while ignoring the knowledge, expertise, and perspective of the teachers in the classroom that work directly with the students.

Sources:

Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Why you should flip your classroom. In Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day (pp. 19–33). Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112060/chapters/Why-You-Should-Flip-Your-Classroom.aspx

MadDrawProductions [Producer] (May 27, 2012). The flipped classroom. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojiebVw8O0g