Standard 5: Instructional Delivery

Flipped Learning: My Perspective

Flipped learning is an instructional strategy that completely reverses the typical learning environment. Delivering the instructional content outside the classroom online and moving activities, or homework, inside the classroom is becoming an increasingly popular and controversial strategy. Students go home and sit in front of a screen which displays to them instructions on how to complete a long division problem or what parts of speech are. Then, when in the classroom, they are working together as a class to complete homework or group activities revolving around what they learned at home the night before.

So, what are the issues with this strategy? Trusting that students will actually watch and complete the instructional video assigned to them. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that this will happen. Along with this, not every student learns effectively in the same way. Some students may not learn their best by sitting in front of a computer screen each night. I learn based on example and by watching someone else complete the task first. Lectures followed by immediate practice tends to be my best form of learning. Like many, flipped learning may not be the most successful form of learning for me.

Along with negatives, of course come the positives. One of the best parts of flipped learning in my opinion, is that students have control over how they learn. Students can pause and rewind the instructional video, write down notes and questions, and go into the class the next day ready to collaborate with their peers and teachers. This type of learning promotes student-centered learning. Students are given the chance to not only learn from their teacher but from their peers as well. Thus, they will develop more confidence in themselves and their learning as well as learn how to collaborate effectively.

As you can see, there is a reason that flipped learning tends to be controversial. I am very much a hands-on learner. I could see myself having issues with going home and sitting in front of a screen each night, trying to learn something and then probably forgetting anything I learned because I was not able to put that learning to work right away. Knowing your students first is the best way to know whether flipped learning will work in your classroom.