What is Flipped Learning?
In a classroom full of students, why do only a handful of students pay attention during a lecture?
Many students in a class find something more engaging to do, like doodling, simply looking out of the windows, or even daydreaming.
This is because traditionally, classroom teaching has been instructor-led. The teacher goes on and on about a topic, reading out and giving a lecture.
However, flipped learning flips the scenario. It shifts the passive learning for home. In the classroom, the learners are active contributors. Thus, it is more learner-centric. The classroom becomes a place for active learning, exploration, engagement, discussion, and in-depth understanding. This keeps learners engaged and is said to have shown better learning outcomes.
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Students go through their learning materials at home. In the classroom, they practice what they have learned at home. This ensures all students get to participate, learn, clear their doubts, and get attention from the teacher.
Why Flipped Learning?
The initial learning happens at home. Here, the students go through the reading material. The classroom becomes a hub of active engagement for students. So, they could work individually or in groups depending on the task assigned by the teacher.
The teacher uses technology and interactive methods to teach students, besides using textbooks. Thus, the students get to learn better, clear their doubts, explore topics, work in groups and take part in activities that boost their understanding. The teacher can teach using videos, slides, podcasts, quizzes, and engage students in role plays.
Some benefits of flipped learning for learners are:
- Less distraction
- Purposeful homework
- Teacher pays attention to all students
- More involvement of students
- Better prepared before attending class
The teacher is key to flipped learning. They have to observe students, assess their work and keep experimenting with the methods and tools they use to make classroom learning better. They engage students in exploring topics in-depth.
Can blended learning improve learning outcomes among learners? This short video will explain how teachers can transform their classrooms into lively learning spaces.
Elements of Flipped Learning
- Flexible Learning Environment: It allows various learning modes for students — textbook learning, discussions, online or offline methods. Teachers are responsible for creating flexible spaces for studying individually or in groups.
- Learning Culture: This approach shifts classroom setup from being instructor-led to a learner-centred one. This is to encourage the active involvement of students.
- Teachers must constantly work on improving learner outcomes. There should be more focus on how to improve understanding among learners and how to keep them engaged.
- For flipped learning to work, a regular assessment of the learner’s understanding and retention has to be taken by the teacher. Besides, both students and teachers need to give feedback. The teacher should provide frequent feedback to each of the students.
This learning model was tried out in several schools in the West. Clintondale High School in Detroit was one of the earliest schools to implement this model. The school showed data that after the flip, the number of freshmen who failed declined from 50% to 19%. And those who failed in Math declined from 44% to 13%.
However, the wide implementation of this model can only be fuelled with good infrastructure — good internet connectivity across rural and urban areas, and the cheap availability of digital devices. Thus, it can be a challenge in developing economies. However, if implemented in such countries that have a miserable teacher to student ratio, it can help improve learning.
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