Excepts from Justin Reich’s blog entitled Rethinking
Teaching and Time with the Flipped Classroom, June 20, 2012
For me, the Flipped Classroom is about one essential question: What is the
best use of our class time? More precisely, how do we ensure that students do
the most cognitively demanding work inside classrooms?
In general, educators agree that listening and receiving content is not
nearly as difficult as applying new ideas and practicing new skills. Watching a
teacher demonstrate the solution to a problem is less cognitively demanding
than solving new problems. Kids shouldn't go home to solve hard problems, they
should do so in class with peer and mentor support. We can make that possible,
by sending them home to watch content delivery.
For Jon and Aaron, the best part of flipping class is that after eliminating
the need to stand in front of class lecturing every period, they can commit to
making time to check in with every student, every class, every day. How many
teachers can say that a personal connection with every single student is a
routine part of every class? To me, the potential for this kind of personal
connection and relationship building is the most compelling reason for
experimenting with Flipping class.
Note to reformers: if you try to use Flipped models to increase class sizes
or supervise computer-using students with paraprofessionals, then you will miss
out on the most powerful benefits. Let's spend time-gains on deeper learning,
not on making school cheaper.
My Response:
Justin,
You hit the mark on what I see as an important goal of flipping a class,
ensuring, “that students do the most cognitively demanding work inside
classroom” and not simply as some new way of doing things. The goals of any
instructional change should be to make education time (always too limited) used
to promote collaboration, higher order thinking, and addressing misconceptions
as needed. As you note, critics often think that this is a way replace teachers or increase numbers
in the classroom but they miss the point. (In my opinion, any teacher who could be
replaced by videos probably needs to
be replaced.) You aren’t replacing the teacher, just turning the lecture into a
shorter, reviewable part of homework, thereby freeing up classroom time for
making connections and teaching understanding over procedures and facts. With
the ability to link in other video clips hopefully it can be a more interesting
lecture as well.
Note: As I mentioned in a blog post to Joe Bergmann, I’m trying for step 2
for next year—flipping an entire class.
I dropped one of my graduate classes this summer to have the time to
start recording videos for my students. I have gotten my software (Camtasia)
and hope to have my other items next week (a nicer microphone and a sound
adapter for the laptop that will now be my classroom computer).
I plan to flip at least one of courses for next year (History of Western Civilization)
starting at the beginning of next year, and possibly my World Cultures class as
well. My goal is to emphasize connections to see how prior events, geography,
and decisions are connected and influence history. With the introduction of
laptops for all students I plan to have them post their answers to my Universal
Reading Questions and to group them daily by topics to research additional
information to interact with the reading, build on their prior knowledge, and
to make connection between events and to their world today.
Blog and comments at: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/06/rethinking_teaching_and_time_with_the_flipped_classroom.html?r=2018131816
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