Flipped classroom

As the name implies, there is a shift in the hierarchy of the classroom. Traditionally, classes were attended by students that attended lectures, took notes and studied text books, took tests and so on. In a flipped classroom however, the teacher gives up their role at the head of the class, and becomes a facilitator. The class relies on peer teaching and collaborative work.  There are some advantages and disadvantages to both systems; we are looking at the flipped concept today.

It has been noted that many students gain more insight and understanding from their peers than a traditional teacher. This is not too uncommon as there is a higher ratio of trainee to trainer in these class settings. More class time can be spent on giving the direction to the student that needs it and the other more advanced student can gain more insight by training the other students.

The facilitator can give assistance to groups of students that are tasked with teaching themselves in the subject. This has many advantages such as;

1. 1.       Gives students exposure to material, prior to lectures – As the student is now becoming a trainer as well as a learner, they have the opportunity to research work for the group and present it as learning material, similar to the forum that we are doing.
2. 2.       This intern gives students an incentive for study – because they must produce resource materials, they are more likely to be active, or they run the risk of letting the group down.
3. 3.       Provides a method for student assessment – with pre-assignments or quizzes, the student has the ability to see what they know and what they don’t know, and thus the teacher can concentrate on what they don’t know.
4. 4.       Provide higher cognitive activities – because the students have done all the basic knowledge outside of class time, they can now concentrate on more specialized activities in the classroom. This could be assignments or utilizing the previously acquired knowledge for more practical purposes.

In theory this is great, but you can see that the facilitator and the collaborative learning have some weaknesses. These are usually based on the assumption that;

1. 1.       All students know how to research the topics that they are given
2. 2.       Their basic understanding will be adequate for the higher cognitive activities with the pre-exercises.
3. 3.       That they do not rely on the others in the group to do all of their work
4. 4.       They have the skills, aptitude and desire to work like this.
5. 5.       It must also be noted that resources must be adequate for the tasks of pre-learning research. If a student does not have facilities to do this, then they will not be able to accomplish their tasks.
6. 6.       It this is done, the knowledge must be clear enough for the other students to assimilate it from the student providing it. If the firs student does not fully understand it, then they will only convey part of the knowledge or not an adequate amount. Not everyone can teach after all.
7. 7.       With a large portion of time spent on research, if the objective are not well defined or understood, this time may be lost on irrelevant material.

It is unfortunate, that not everyone will be able to embrace this type of training model, but if they are not aware of this prior to signing up for a class, they are in trouble. It also takes a bit more discipline that a new student might not have. Giving the task of setting the learning objectives (or at least the interpretation of them) to the student can lead to deviations for the true course outcomes. It only takes one error in reading a set of instructions and the student that spent time getting his blog up and running will not get any marks.