Flipped Learning and Teaching

What is flipped learning? If not studying the subject I would not be able to tell you. However, flipped learning is a new strategy used by teachers to switching things up in the classroom. Before I tell you what flipped learning is it may be a good idea to understand what a normal classroom looks like.

In a normal classroom a teacher may teach a subject and then have the kids do an activity on their own at home or with extra time in the class. What many teachers do is give the students the information and then have the students reiterate the lesson in order to  check for understanding.

Flipped learning on the other hand is different in that the teachers have the students do research on their own at home. Check out this video to see how flipping a classroom works. The teacher has various options in which they can assign the students to develop questions from their research and then post them or send them to a designated area. On the other hand teachers can use the class period the next day to do an activity or to create and in class discussion on what the students learned in their research. For more information on the basics of flipped learning visit Flipped Teaching.

With every teaching strategy there are going to be pros and cons. One of the pros to flipping the classroom is that it incorporates blended learning. Blended Learning is a formal education program where a students learns partly in an online manner to promote individual research. Keep in mind that instruction that makes use of technology, is not necessarily blended learning if it doesn't give the student control of time, place, path and/or pace. Flipped teaching also promotes a responsibility and an obligation to students. As well as maybe help to get parents involved in a students homework as well.

On the other hand, some setbacks that may be included with flipped learning is one a students access to the Internet, or even in poorer communities a computer. If a student doesn't have access to a computer how are they expected to do their own research? If a student can't do research on their own then they won't be able to learn properly in a classroom. Also with the students doing their own research then the teacher may not be able to fully know that the student has a complete understanding of the problem.
 
What does flipped learning mean for those teachers entering the job force? First of all visit and outside source called the flipped teaching website to find a plethora of videos that explain flipped teaching. It means that you are going to have to keep up with the latest technology. I believe that it is important to know and find different teaching styles. Why? Because if students don't learn about new technology in the classroom where are they going to properly learn these things? Also every students learning style is different. On student may learn really well in a certain environment and another in a different. To create different lesson plan with various ways of learning may prove to be more work for the teacher but I believe that the result of the more rounded students that they are producing will be worth the effort. For a great example of a flipped classroom and one that is technology prevalent visit Mrs Pac's Class. But before you go and jump into flipped teaching make sure that you watch this video on what 5 things this teacher would have wanted to know before he switched to flipped teaching.