A “flipped classroom” is slowly becoming more and more common it schools today. Overall it is reversing a typical day at school. What I consider a “typical day” is students attend school for a specific time period to listen to a teacher lecture 30+ students on various types of lessons. When students leave school and go home, they work on assignments related to the lesson learned in class. A flipped classroom is when a teacher reverses this day. Students first watch pre recorded video lectures of a topic and then come to school the following day prepared to work on assignments based off of that video.
When I began to read about the concept of a flipped classroom in Pascal-Emmamuel Gobry’s What Is The Flipped Classroom Model And Why Is It Amazing? I was sold on the idea. I found it genius. Students could learn at their own pace, have more one on one time with a teacher, test their understanding of subjects as they learn it, student teach one another, and so much more. However, as I continued to read the cons were introduced. How hard would this type of learning be for low class socioeconomic students? Not only would they not be able to keep up due to the possibility of not having required materials needed, but they might feel even “further alienation” from the other students. Aside from this, students would be required to spend even more time in front of a computer screen during their free time and who knows if they will actually commit to this.
When I began to read about the concept of a flipped classroom in Pascal-Emmamuel Gobry’s What Is The Flipped Classroom Model And Why Is It Amazing? I was sold on the idea. I found it genius. Students could learn at their own pace, have more one on one time with a teacher, test their understanding of subjects as they learn it, student teach one another, and so much more. However, as I continued to read the cons were introduced. How hard would this type of learning be for low class socioeconomic students? Not only would they not be able to keep up due to the possibility of not having required materials needed, but they might feel even “further alienation” from the other students. Aside from this, students would be required to spend even more time in front of a computer screen during their free time and who knows if they will actually commit to this.
I could see myself using this concept from time to time but never on a daily basis. I think that this type of learning would be much more challenging for younger students because they do not pick their schedule at home, the parents do. If a parents is busy driving around and running errands it is very likely that they have their child with them. I would have loved to use this every now and then during my undergrad because I think I could have gained a lot more insight from certain topics. It also seems easier at a time like highschool or college because students have the access (home, library, or school) and time to use computers, iPads, or phones to watch these videos. Certain lessons such as a science labs might be good opportunity to use this concept so the students are fully prepared for the lab and the concepts behind it and the teacher has more time to help them see it through.
Hannah
ReplyDeleteI hadnt considered doing flipped classrooms part time before reading your post. I think flipped classrooms have tremendous value, but have downsides as well as you point out. As it is now, teachers require students to occasionally do work on computers at home or otherwise outside of the class. Usually this is in the form of typing out essays or doing research on the internet. If we could make flipped classrooms an occasional thing, I don't think it would be quite so much of a burden to the poorer families that don't have as much access to technology. You mentioned science labs specifically as an ideal subject to introduce flipped classrooms. I agree with this and also think history would be well-suited for flipped classrooms. With a video lecture the night before, students could come in to class ready to debate varying sides of the lesson they learned about.
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your response to these articles. We definitely had similar reactions and overall responses to this idea of a flipped classroom. I agree with you, there needs to be some sort of a balance between a complete flipped classroom and a traditional classroom setting. You are absolutely right about younger students maybe having a more challenging time with the flipped classroom concept. I hadn't thought of this, and good on you for expanding past what the articles had as cons.