What is Flipped Classroom?

We have known the usually practiced teaching methods of the traditional classroom where a teacher takes lessons and interacts one-on-one with students without any third-party medium. Her teacher has all the commands and regulates the flow of knowledge within students, due to which students are taught in a single space and the time and pace also remain constant. However, it deviates from the main aim of teaching, where students can only focus on taking notes instead of building new ideas around the concepts. It hardly put any emphasis on practically applying the knowledge gained through reasoning or encouraging critical thinking in students. On one side, this teaches students to work under pressure. Flipped Classroom.

In contrast, on the other side, there\’s a significant lack of motivation among the students, and there\’s no supervision while completing the homework at home. Looking at all these drawbacks, an entirely new system of learning called flipped classroom was developed.

Students can learn the core subjects being taught in the traditional classroom by lecturing, tutorials and examinations by replacing it with a student-centric approach of active learning. Many educational institutions largely adopt a new style of learning as it allows deeper levels of understanding required for complex concepts and lifelong learning for students. The task was to develop problem-solving knowledge and higher-order thinking skills. Here we will learn more about the flipped classroom model and how it works.

Defination Of Flipped Classroom

The flipped learning model is a form of active learning where students are engaged to do preliminary online learning for a structurally aligned learning activity on campus with their peers and instructors. Students prepare the content online at home and then analyze, experiment, evaluate and practice it at school. A flipped classroom is a more efficient and engaging learning method than lecturing and giving homework.

Students view the pre-recorded lecture videos, prepare and take notes on what they learned while being at home and then give all their time in problem-solving and experimenting on the course at school, which saves time for the teachers as well as the students. It prepares students for an active learning environment where they can learn at their own pace, and the educators will get more time to teach each student individually.

For the better part of a decade, educators are advised to follow a personalized method of teaching because of every student\’s different abilities and requirements. Some students lack motivation, adequate background for learning material, are disenchanted with the resent educational model, or are uninterested in learning a particular subject.

Focusing on every student is not possible with a traditional learning approach. It\’s almost impossible for the teachers to ensure that every student is learning while there are so many standards to cover. Teachers\’ reliance on lectures as the default method of teaching in a classroom provides very limited opportunities to develop knowledge and skills. Flipping the classroom establishes a framework that enables the students to receive personalized education tailored to their individual needs. Educators provide students with as much content as they can and hope that it reaches as many students as possible.

Why Implement A Flipped Classroom?

A flipped classroom is the most strategic and easy way to teach students. Educators can flip for a particular lesson, an entire unit, or the whole classroom. It provides effective learning and helps in building good teacher-student relationships. Increased student-student and student-teacher interaction incorporate a positive learning environment where everyone is appreciated and supported.

Another great benefit is that it allows students to use advanced technology in their learning process, which makes it far more interesting and exciting for the students as well as for the teachers. Students and teachers can now communicate outside the classroom, and students are always pre-prepared for the lessons being taken in class.

Another fundamental and encouraging reason to test out flipped learning model is that it allows educators to use large-scale differentiation. Teachers can tailor their instructions according to individual needs. As a result, teachers can spend more time with struggling students while giving more opportunities to outstanding performers. Differentiated instruction is incorporated in every learning opportunity while implementing the flipped classroom.

Studies show that students miss close to a month of school for a year, in which case flipped classroom is effective in reducing the learning gaps as introductory knowledge is already available to students, which they can access in their own time. Students become confident and responsible towards their learning and get motivated to perform better. There is a personalized teacher-student collaboration which results in effective student involvement in the learning process. The flipped technology has also made it easier for the students to review the topics again and again through online tutorials and lectures in case they missed something or wanted to revise during their exams.

Key Elements Of A Flipped Classroom

To work as an effective teacher in the flipped mastery environment and bring the best results out of it, a few characteristics are necessary :

• Prior Exposure To Lectures:

Students should be encouraged to attend recorded lectures before starting the class. The pre-recorded lectures help students and learners to have a clear idea about the topics. In addition, Pre-learning followed by a facilitated active learning session allows students to take ownership of their learning and develop higher-level thinking skills in an individual.

In this way, some teachers provide screencasts of class topics on their Youtube channels or online e-learning platforms. Students can also access course videos on Coursera, the khan academy, or other platforms. The pre-class exposure doesn\'t necessarily have to be the recorded lectures; students can also access reading assignments.

• An Educator Is The Content Master :

In a successful flipped classroom model, the educator plays a significant role by providing proficient and professional content to the students. However, the teacher doesn\’t necessarily give direct instruction in flipped teaching but contributes to providing a welcoming learning space to the students. Flipping a classroom sometimes looks like a lot of work in the beginning, as it takes time to find the right content, videos, assignments, and activities for the class. Still, it eventually gets easier after the first time; teachers get comfortable gathering multiple resources on the internet and using them in future endeavors.

Teachers can find resources on the internet for planning online lessons abound. There are curated, interactive materials for teachers, including free online books, activities, and videos. A teacher\’s ability to move from one topic to another will help the students understand the curriculum\’s interconnectedness. In addition, a teacher can provide individualized instruction when students come up with their doubts while learning from notes and short videos provided to them.

Part of the beauty of flipped classroom model is that it provides flexibility to the teachers based on their student\’s needs. They can use unit HyperDoc to help students progress in a series of lesson components, explore content independently, and extend their knowledge. Google classroom is one of the major effective platforms widely adopted today so that teachers can deliver assignments and provide effective and efficient feedback to the learners.

• Establish Clear Learning Objectives And Giving Incentives:

Objectives are the desired outcomes of learning expected from each student. Hence, having a clear objective towards what is being taught and having a clear judgment about what we want our students to learn. Teachers can create a video of their own on the objectives that will benefit from direct instructions. There may be cases when there\’s no need to produce their content, and teachers can use someone else\’s. Also, providing students incentives to complete small assignments, projects, or completing a task associated with their progress encourages them to work hard again. These provide extrinsic motivation and accelerate students to work hard for their studies.

• Provide A Mechanism For Students To Demonstrate Their Understanding:

Flipped teaching has proved to be very effective in engaging students in pre and in-class activities. Scores from quizzes and exams in a flipped classroom model are significantly better than the semester scores of traditional lecture-based teaching. Quiz modules and computer-generated testing systems are the most effective and systematic ways to measure student understanding of a particular unit. Pre-class worksheets provide challenges to students and drift their focus in the area of weakness. Pre-class writing assessments help them to explore and clarify their thinking of a particular subject, thereby providing richer in-class discussions.

Flipped classroom replaces didactic teaching and also allows learners self-paced preparation for exams. Having an organizational guide with a clear list of objectives such as videos, reading of textbooks, classroom activities, and lab activities can provide them with an appropriate framework to meet each learning objective. Also, solving tutorials and performing in-class practicals certainly motivates the learners to perform well during exams. In addition, many in-class learning activities can serve as informal checks of student understanding.

• Incorporate Engaging Learning Activities:

Along with the content provided to the students, the instructors and teachers should also provide them with a road map for each activity to be followed in a particular unit. The road map must include the follow-along notes for the video content, experiment lists, and all of the suggested worksheets. Flipped classroom model contains all active learning methods specifying active and conceptual understanding.

Activities are required because without hands-on experiences, \’classroom instruction in a discipline is like studying recipes without ever cooking anything. At the same time, conceptual learning is necessary so that the general principles can be extracted from the experience so they may be transferred to other contexts. For example, students may engage themselves in debates, discussions, surveys, question-answer sessions, data analysis, or synthesis activities which in the long run will deepen their understanding and develop skills to perceive new knowledge.

Flipped Classroom Advantages And Disadvantages

A flipped classroom is an innovative strategy that reinforces the traditional culture of teaching and understanding to work along with the use of new technologies and mobile learning principles. The education system is being consistently transformed, and educators are consistently looking out for better strategies than before to provide lifelong learning to the students. Flipping learning is transforming years one and two.

Students can move ahead at their own pace and use class time to catch up with academic staff in case of queries or difficulties. This strategy is efficient, but it is still a pedagogical and didactic model under construction. Like any other educational strategy and model, the flipped classroom also has certain advantages and disadvantages. This teaching-learning process also requires efficient and rigorous work of the administration to promote the real autonomous study of the students. Here let\’s focus on some of the advantages and disadvantages of implementing flipping learning in a classroom.

Advantages :

1. Efficient short-term learning outcomes.
2. More collaboration time for students and teachers.
3. Opportunities for students to learn at their own pace.
4. More in-hand practice and problem-solving.
5. Increased interaction with teachers.
6. Active and engaging customized learning.
7. Students can review lectures during exams.
8. Students feel more confident and motivated.
9. Encourages student-centric learning approach.

Disadvantages

1. Students with at-home responsibilities feel pressured.
2. Increased interaction can result in stress for certain peers.
3. Teachers find difficulty in adopting a new way of teaching.
4. Group activities can result in conflicts among students.
5. Students with limited access to technology may suffer.
6. It relies on preparation and trust.
7. Students may gain a minimal understanding of content.
8. Watching videos or completing assessments can get boring sometimes.
9. Students are unable to ask questions while pre-learning.
10. Accessing technology also provides distractions.

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