The Flipped Classroom Model in Irish Primary Classrooms
The following PDST Good Practice videos highlight activities that could be used to engage in a Flipped Classroom Model in a primary school setting.
Lesson Planning
A group of teachers worked collaboratively to prepare a unit of work on volcanoes that would develop learners’ knowledge and understanding of volcanoes and enable them to write a report on the topic. It was agreed that the Flipped Classroom Model would be an effective way to introduce all learners to the topic at home and offer greater time in school for learners to engage in active learning activities based on the content.
Flipped Classroom Model in Practice: Before Class - During Class - After Class
At home, before class...
Learners first watched a screencast created by the teacher modelling how to collate and reference information when researching a new topic.
Learners then had the option to choose from a video, podcast or text to learn about volcanoes.
Finally, learners completed a 3-2-1 activity to capture their learning. Many pupils referenced the facts they recorded.
In school, during class...
Placemat Activity: As a way to reflect on and share the content they learned about at home with one another, pupils engaged in a placemat activity in groups of 4. Firstly, pupils individually considered what they had learned about volcanoes and recorded it in their section of the placemat. Secondly, pupils shared what they had written with each other. Thirdly, pupils collectively decided on the five most important/ significant items and recorded them in the centre of the placemat.
Jigsaw Activity: Following the placemat activity, the teacher divided pupils into groups of 6 and distributed a different text resource on volcanoes to each of the 6 pupils. Pupils were given time to read over their resource to become familiar with it. The teacher then formed temporary "expert groups" by having one pupil from each "jigsaw group" join other pupils assigned to the same resource. Pupils were given time in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of information in their resource. The pupils then rejoined their original jigsaw group and each member of the group shared the main points of information in their individual resources with one another. The teacher encouraged others in the group to ask questions for clarification.
The placemat and jigsaw activities afforded all pupils multiple opportunities to discuss their findings with their peers and to deepen their understanding. The teacher was able to facilitate conversations and observe the learning.
Click the image to learn more about active learning methodologies
At home, after class...
Following the hands-on learning activities in school, learners completed an online quiz on Google Forms which included a combination of closed and open-ended questions. This enabled the teacher to assess the learners' knowledge to date.
Teacher Reflection
Upon reflection on the learners' engagement and discussions in class and the results gathered from the online quiz, each teacher decided that it was appropriate to move onto the report writing stage. For this next stage, they decided to use a combination of the Flipped Classroom Model in the form of an instructional video to scaffold the report writing process and the Station Rotation Model to offer small group writing workshops during class time. The teachers felt that this combined approach would work best to meet all of the needs of the learners.