Flipped classroom

[LunaLambBhuna]

Hello all.

I've been doing some summer reading on flipped learning. I'm quite intrigued, especially with the mastery aspect.

Has anyone got experience of flipping their lessons? Good or bad?

Thanks.

Eh?
Is this the Next Big Thing?

Eh?

Crap because half the kids don't do it, so then you gave s whole heap of trouble in the class room! Idea is kids learn the basics via video etc before the lesson, then you can spend the lesson really mastering it and focusing in exam questions in lessons.

Same shit different name - in the 15 years I've been teaching I've seen this under so many names but my personal favourite was fofo (fuck off and find out).

I'm not against it, but it's not new!

Flipped learning is a wonderful idea if you have perfect kids who do their homework and can access the videos. My son's maths teacher likes hegarty maths.

mathswebsite.com

Unfortunately my son is lazy and disorganised and ends up not watching the videos because he has lost his password or I have banned him from using the Internet because he has been a little sod. I think that a school would need to have a viewing of th video at lunch time or after school for those who cannot watch it at home for whatever reason. It's no good banning YouTube at homework club if you want the children to watch. Maths video.

I would suggest writing a letter to the parents to explain flipped learning. I unintentionally messed up my son's flipped learning by denying him Internet. He had been really horrible to his RE teacher and I decided to ban him from Internet for a week. He was not able to watch the videos at home work club.

I love the idea and I've tried it a few times. For the students that do their homework it can really help to extend them but mine are a nightmare for completing homework so it doesn't really work. I've had past groups that it has been brilliant with though.

We use the flipped learning concept. Obviously some don't do the work at home, but it is an expectation that they then complete it in school as part of their independent learning. Seems to work well.

They don't have to watch a video, flipped learning is just about pupils preparing by swotting up on the basics before a lesson so that you can do more interesting stuff in the lesson.
It could be you upload a PowerPoint presentation onto Google classroom or even just give them paper-based prep to do.
The follow-up lesson should then theoretically have different entry points and different paths to follow depending on how confident the pupil is. Lots and lots of effort for, in my view, marginal reward. I am not keen. But I think it's because I don't think it suits my subject that much. Think it is liked in other departments.

I've done it a lot with A-level classes, lazy toe rags don't generally do enough for it to work and the 4 who do end up frustrated.

I despair to be honest that a nearly 18 year old can't read an example, watch a video, learn key words, in preparation for a class.

Thanks for the responses folks! I know it's not new but there seems to be somewhat of a buzz around it this time. It probably is the latest American craze. Jeez, I've seen a few over the last 15 years! However, I quite like the idea and most of my classes are pretty good in my current school.

Wouldn't contemplate using it in some of the hell holes I've taught in though!!

Oh, forgot to add all our kids work of iPads so I could upload videos to their accounts.

fofo

You've just made my day. Or even my year.

So is a bit like university? Where you are meant to have read set prices before the lesson so homework before the fact?

Yes we've trialled it quite a bit over the past year and I'm fully embracing it for my a level classes this year, spent a lot of time finding resources for each lesson and they will be tested on the flipped learning as soon as they come into the classroom. If they've not done it they get sent away to the library etc to catch up and don't get to take part in the (much more active and engaging) lesson.

Means there is more active learning, application of knowledge, opportunity for mastery rather than 45mins spent telling them facts and them writing it down. They have taken a few weeks to get up to speed with it, but if you persist it will work. Not sure about how the younger year groups would take to it, so just leaving it optional for them.

It really suits my subject (biology) as it's very info heavy and there are tons of good videos out there.

I teach English. It has always been part of the learning to send kids home to do some reading (often several chapters) and then discuss it. Even when I was at school, back in the 1970s.

Still, US education has more of a history of kids sitting in silence while a teacher lectures/informs them, then maybe they get to do an activity or answer some questions, so in the US it's seen as sort-of a new thing (ie in the last 5 years or so).

Thanks! katonic, I also teach Science so that's good to hear.

kickass I think you're absolutely right about the US.

I would like to trial it a bit but only with certain classes. I guess there's no harm in trying. The comments above kind of confirmed what I was thinking.

I learned like this at university (Oxford). Reading list given, write an essay for the tutorial, turn up and suffer the Spanish inquisition discuss your thoughts on the subject, justify the viewpoints you have expounded at 2am that morning in your essay.

TBH it was hard to the point of off putting.

I'm assuming that someone teaching a KS3 class would not be setting the same level of expectations as an Oxford University professor. DD has a teacher who does this - they listen to a short video put together by the teacher, have to email in an answer about the video, then get given discussion questions for small groups in class.

It can work well, but the kids who can't/won't do homework cause problems. Also, at some point kids need to get on and write something in response, and that quite often needs to be finished as homework.

For occasional use it's good.

It's like most of these things they work well with very able well motivated students. They don't work with average ability or low ability students who actually need the input of the teacher! most kids can't self teach or don't really want to. These latest crazes refuse to take account of this fact and continue to harangue us with their crap. Sorry rant over!

cansu don't you think that independent learning is a really useful skill in life, and that learning how to 'self teach' is valuable to all ability students? As I said above, I do flipped learning with my A level classes who are all broadly motivated and able, so it works, but with the lower years I agree that they would struggle and with the time available and pressure of getting results I tend to hold their hand a lot more.

However if teachers of younger children are using flipped learning consistently it can only be a good thing, as it will build up their self reliance and help them to see that there are other sources of information they can find for themselves, the teacher is not the fount of all knowledge. And this I think is key to being a successful adult, so if they can practice this skill at school it's got to be useful surely? You sound like you are speaking from a bad experience, but it's not just what they learn at school it's how they learn, and helping students understand that learning isn't limited to the classroom and teacher delivering it to you.

I understand the theory and of course give opportunities for independent learning but that isnt the same as the flipped classroom scenario. Most ten year olds dont really have the skills to pre teach themselves in any meaningful way. It may well work well with older students.

I used it a lot in my previous school (we called it self-directed learning) although it was a lot of work for me putting the resources on Moodle and checking who had actually accessed them.

You have to teach them the skills, cansu.

I don't think you can just decide one day that you are going to employ flipped learning across the board. You have to give the students the skills first.