Flipped Learning – A Newfound Experience for Teachers and Students!

Technology and education are inseparable when it comes to enhancing the teaching and learning experience especially for students. Teachers have been comfortable being the center of the lesson up to present. However, the perspective is now changing in parallel to different technological integration and advancement. Hence, students are expected to be in charge of their own learning by utilizing technology. Teachers should act as catalyst in enhancing students' learning experience by integrating technology in their lesson. I first learned the term flipped learning a few years back during the worldwide paradigm shift in education post Covid. It was relatively new especially concerning the local education landscape. Not many teachers including myself, despite knowing what it is in theory; put it into practice with our students. With this course, I have realized that flipped learning is more than just a tool in pedagogy but, most importantly it serves as a vital alternative for students to prepare themselves before lessons in otherwise obscure classroom instructions.

Teaching students across multiple intelligence is also a challenge faced by many teachers. By practicing flipped learning, teachers are actually helping the students to learn better. They will have the chance to be the master of their own learning and enable them to learn at their own pace. This is due to the fact that flipped learning is accessible anytime and students are allowed to replay the learning video as many times as they need. In addition, the switch from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning is vastly significant in achieving the 21st century education goals and objectives. The students also get to immerse themselves with the use of technology and have fun while doing so. It surely promotes substantial change of atmosphere in learning rather than relying solely on the conventional ‘talk and chalk’ approach since students spend quite a considerable amount of time on their smartphones daily. As a result, students will establish deeper critical thinking and problem-solving ability when they start taking charge of their own learning, hence moulding them into well-rounded individuals in future.

On a different note, by flipping the classroom, teachers are able to provide tailored experience for the students and allow them to work on themselves one step at a time. It does not matter how slowly they go, what matters are their effort and their journey towards progress. Learning is indeed a personal journey that one must be responsible for in order to obtain success. Therefore, with flipped learning, teachers are providing a fresher alternative to students that can aid them in understanding the lesson better. However, in putting flipped learning into practice, teachers may experience some setbacks; namely lack of digital literacy, time constraint, lack of quality resources and so on. Hence, teachers can work collaboratively through PLCs with their counterparts either from the same or different schools and come up with the much needed materials and equip themselves with the knowledge on flipped learning. Shared resources can also be beneficial to many as the practice of flipping the classroom can be widespread regardless of the schools’ locations. These initiatives can promote collaboration among teachers and eventually, the seemingly far-fetched idea of flipped learning can be realised easily. It is an exemplary practice for teachers to exchange viewpoints on their pedagogical skills pertaining technology. Not only that, teachers can come up with various ideas to perfectly capture the essence of classroom flipping and tailoring lessons for students with multiple intelligence, making it possible for other teachers to sift and pick what works for their students.

The two main tools that have been introduced during the course are Screencastify and EdPuzzle. Both tools are relatively useful in helping teachers to prepare their lessons and flipping the classroom. The latter is much more appealing in my opinion, as I think students at present are used to watching short reels and videos online. EdPuzzle enables teachers to quickly check the students’ understanding while watching the short video. It also allows the students to think critically and carefully as they watch it so that they will be able to answer the questions that follows correctly. In practicing flipped classroom, students still need to refer to their textbooks and other reading materials, ensuring a balanced learning technique as they will not merely rely on technology alone. So, rather than just used as a substitution, technology allows for significant task redesign and finally, allows for the creation of new tasks. This initial activity can further be extended into a collaborative project with their classmates, corroborating the SAMR Model in classroom technology integration. As such, the collaborative project can be in the form of a blog post, an extended video, or an online article. The possibilities are endless as students can get creative during the collaboration. Consequently, the whole lesson then becomes objectified, cementing their core understanding and level up their knowledge.

In summary, flipped learning works like a personal journey of learning for both teachers and students. Technology, undoubtedly, can be a double edged sword but in this case, the boons are greater than its banes. By moving towards flipped classroom, teachers can explore a new pedagogical approach and students get to be the centre of their own learning. Perhaps with this newfound experience, teaching and learning in the classroom can be scaled up as we move forward into the 21st century education. Teachers should take this opportunity to draw students back into learning with passion as many have lost interest after the pandemic and beyond. The Ministry of Education and its subsidiaries, on the other hand, should find ways to provide more training programmes, needed supports and multiple resources for teachers and students so that flipped classroom can be successfully realised. With solid knowledge, support, and resources, flipped classroom can be a nationwide pride in teaching and learning as well as putting an exemplary practice for our neighboring countries. What time is better than now to start integrating technology in the classroom and allowing students to experience the future of education.