Flipped Classroom Learning

Flipped classroom or flip teaching is a form of blended learning in which students learn new content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class with teachers offering more personalized guidance and interaction with students, instead of lecturing. This is also known as backwards classroom, inverted classroom, reverse teaching.

Traditional vs flipped teaching

The traditional pattern of teaching has been to assign students to read textbooks and work on problem sets outside school, while listening to lectures and taking tests in class.

"My AP Calculus class was a really anxious environment, it was weird trying to get through way too much material with not enough time. It was exactly the opposite of what I was looking for when I got into teaching." (A teacher explaining what motivated her to adopt flipped teaching.)

In flip teaching, the students first study the topic by themselves, typically using video lessons prepared by the teacher or third parties. In class students apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work. The teacher tutors the students when they become stuck, rather than imparting the initial lesson in person. Complementary techniques include differentiated instruction and project-based learning. Teachers are blending flipped learning with traditional in-class lecturing through tools like eduCanon or EDpuzzle that keep students accountable to video lessons at home through time-embedded formative assessments.

Flipped classrooms free class time for hands-on work.^[14] Students learn by doing and asking questions. Students can also help each other, a process that benefits both the advanced and less advanced learners.^[15]

Flipping also changes the allocation of teacher time. Traditionally, the teacher engages with the students who ask questions — but those who don’t ask tend to need the most attention. “We refer to ‘silent failers,’ ” said one teacher, claiming that flipping allows her to target those who need the most help rather than the most confident. Flipping changes teachers from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”, allowing them to work with individuals or groups of students throughout the session.^[15]

In addition to assisting the students, flipped classrooms give parents the opportunity to view the same class materials and instruction as the students. Viewing the teacher's instruction methods gives parents the confidence to assist their child with the same teaching style and helps with homework support. ^[16]

History

Eric Mazur developed peer instruction in the 1990s. He found that computer-aided instruction allowed him to coach instead of lecture. Lage, Platt and Treglia published the paper "Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment" in 2000.^[17] In 1993, King published "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side"^[18] in College Teaching, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Winter, 1993), pp. 30–35. Baker presented "The classroom flip: using web course management tools to become the guide by the side" at the 11th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning. Baker's article presents the model of classroom flipping.

Starting in fall 2000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison used eTeach software to replace lectures in a computer science course with streaming video of the lecturer and coordinated slides.^[20] In 2011, two centers at Wisconsin Collaboratory for Enhanced Learning^[21] were built to focus on flipped and blended learning.

In 2004, Salman Khan began to record videos at the request of a younger cousin who felt that recorded lessons would let her skip parts she had mastered and replay parts that were troubling her. Khan’s model essentially provides one-to-one tutoring. Khan Academy videos are used as part of some educators' flipped teaching strategy.