My Take on the Flipped Classroom

There’s a grassroots movement trending in communities across the country. It started with a handful of tech-savvy pioneers and a few innovative educators. Slowly, it moved in to the mainstream, catching the attention of parents and kids searching for a better way. Forward-thinking businesses and avant-garde entrepreneurs saw the immense, untapped potential and jumped on board. Now, it’s cropping up everywhere.

No, people aren’t protesting on the city green or picketing the statehouse. But don’t be fooled, these demonstrations are no less transformative than the acts of dissent that you read about in the headlines today. Don’t worry … the demonstrations that I am referring to are peaceful (far more effective) and available online for participating students. Watch and learn. Once this movement goes viral, it just may change the world.

So what’s going on?

An increasing number of educators are experimenting with an innovative learning model using technology to streamline the delivery of subject matter, increasing access to quality curricula and also freeing up valuable classroom time for creativity, experimentation, collaboration, remedial work and further exploration of topics that can help students better understand the world around them and their place within it.

A caveat before I continue … It’s not my intention to be overly critical of our current education system. I was raised in a family of educators and know first-hand the positive influence that they have had on their students. But I truly believe this is a topic worth exploring. Here’s why …

The world is changing faster than we can understand it. To make matters worse, too many of our children are not receiving the education they need to be personally successful, let alone the information they will need to make a positive contribution to complicated issues of global significance. Salman Kahn, a former hedge fund analyst turned online educator, states in his book, The One World School House: Education Reimagined,

“To be successful in a competitive and interconnected world, we need every mind we have; to solve our common problems regarding relations among peoples and the health of our planet, we need all the talent and imagination we can find. What sense does it make to filter out a percentage of kids so early in the game, to send a message that they have nothing to contribute? What about the late bloomers? What about the possible geniuses who happen to look at the world differently from most of us and may not test well at an early age?”

It is important to realize that the traditional American education system was modeled after the Prussian philosophy of the early 19th century. Among the first countries in the world to introduce tax-funded and mandatory primary education, the Prussians did not create their education system to produce independent and innovative thinkers…quite the opposite. They wanted a uniform population of capable workers prepared to fill the jobs of the early industrial age and to produce loyal and law-abiding citizens with strict instruction in duty, discipline and obedience.

Don’t get me wrong. These are all important qualities that should be instilled in our children as part of their education. In truth, the current education model served our nation remarkably well up to this point in time. American democracy has been one of the greatest experiments in human governance that the world has ever seen. I believe our education system played a vital role in unifying our nation of immigrants, while preserving the rich diversity of our individual cultural heritages. It has encouraged us to live peacefully under one system of government through many challenges that could have just as easily divided us. However, as Thomas Jefferson once said:

“I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions … But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their …ancestors.” – Jefferson to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval), July 12, 1816

So, here we are in the 21st century. Human minds have certainly progressed since the time of Thomas Jefferson. Our nation has matured and become more enlightened. Many new discoveries have been made. In fact, Jefferson never could have imagined the transformative power of the Internet, but he certainly left provisions for change when the need arose.  Well, it is no longer a question of when? That time is now. The U.S. education system has already been slipping internationally over the past three decades, according to the Council for Foreign Relations’ Renewing America Initiative. The more relevant question is, how?

Today, the stage has been set for digital learning. The Internet pervades our society. Social media has been dubbed “the single most disruptive innovation in the history of industrialized civilization”. It has changed the way we interact with each other, how we access information and get our daily news, the tools we use to conduct business and shop for consumer goods … even how we express our approval or dissatisfaction with everything from people and popular trends to government policies. However, when it comes to how we educate our children, we are still surprisingly behind the curve.

Fortunately, more and more educators are using technology in their classrooms, but challenges still remain. How do they successfully cover all of the requirements of the Common Core State Standards in the time they have allotted for each subject, and still adequately address students with different abilities and learning styles? Some have suggested extending the school day, or even the school year. However, many legal and logistical obstacles stand in the way of these changes, which may take years to implement. Meanwhile, kids are falling through the cracks year after year. Why not rethink the way we engage students within the existing system to ensure that they assimilate the information more efficiently?

The flipped (or blended learning) classroom is one such alternative where students first study the topic by themselves, typically using video lessons prepared by the teacher or third parties like the Khan Academy, a non-profit educational website created in 2006. In the classroom, students apply the knowledge they learn at home by solving problems, participating in discussions and doing practical work. The teacher has an increased amount of class time to tutor students when they become stuck, rather than lecturing the entire class period.

Complementary techniques used in a blended learning environment include differentiated instruction, providing students with different ways to acquire and make sense of ideas. Teachers develop lesson plans and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively regardless of differences in ability. Online resources allow teachers to tailor instruction to student’s individual needs, providing real-time measurements of achievement and concept-level proficiency. The flipped classroom structure also allows time for project-based instruction where students first learn the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce real results.

Both of these methods incorporate digital tools to produce high quality, collaborative instruction; refocusing the motivation to learn on the student, promoting a greater depth of understanding of concepts, a broader knowledge base, enhanced communication and leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing proficiency.

For most of the students who now populate our schools, the Internet has always been a part of their lives and social media is their preferred method of communication. So it makes sense to reach (and teach) them where they live. Refitting the classroom with innovative technologies is a powerful way to customize the learning experience and promote increased engagement with subject matter, to ensure that all students are prepared to meet the rigorous demands of an ever-changing world.

Elizabeth

“Education is a powerful instrument of change. Let it be the first tool that we reach for in our arsenal of solutions, when facing life’s many challenges.”

Up Next:
Environmental Education in the Flipped Classroom, and
Making a Teach Green Nature Journal