Flipped Classrooms - Yay or nay?

Article of the Week

When I was I high school student, I only struggled through two classes – AP Calculus and AP Physics.  Was it because I am more of the social science, book-reading type?  Not exactly.  It was because we used a flipped classroom model.  Let me say that my teacher was incredible and always willing to help, but I got bored while watching the videos at home and didn’t pay attention to what we were learning.  Should I have tried harder to focus and pay attention?  Absolutely!  But at seventeen, I would have rather watched Netflix than learned how to complete a calculus problem, which makes me wonder… can a flipped classroom be effective?

This week, I chose an article by Kevin Fuchs called “Evaluating the technology-enhanced flipped classroom through the students’ eye: A case study.”  Fuchs (2021) argues that “flipped classrooms can offer a partial solution to the challenging task of providing quality education while coping with the increased number of students in distance education” (p. 26).  It is only because of technology that the flipped classroom is a relevant and reasonable approach to teaching today.

Fuchs examined one flipped classroom of graduate students for this case study.  In this classroom, students used Moodle to access recorded lectures during the preparation part of the course and to submit work in the reflection part of the course.  (Teachers and students alike found that platform difficult to use, and they instead opted to communicate through Zoom and Google technologies.)  Fuchs collected responses from seven students in an effort to understand their perceptions about the flipped classroom model.  The students listed many benefits to the flipped classroom, including that it provided an opportunity to contribute to discussions and encouraged advanced preparation for class.  The students also listed limitations including communication barriers amongst strangers (especially when a student felt insecure about a new topic) and the tendency to avoid taking responsibility for learning (like I did in AP Calc and Physics) (Fuchs, 2021). 

Generally, these students did view the flipped classroom model positively and felt the positives outweighed the negatives.  The author did touch on other research that supports this outcome, saying that “participants in flipped classroom courses have a higher degree of involvement and motivation compared to a traditional classroom” (Fuchs, 2021, p. 30).  Still, he offered several suggestions to make a flipped classroom effective.  For example, it is important to make sure students feel comfortable sharing ideas with each other and in a comfortable environment (Fuchs, 2021). 

Obviously, this article studied a college-level flipped classroom, but many of the basic principles are the same in a high school classroom.  After students watch the lecture at home, it is important to create a collaborative and safe classroom environment where students feel they can ask questions.  I was in AP Calc with some of the smartest math students I know, and I was shy and felt too intimidated to ask questions.  

I also feel that because this research examined graduate students, who are arguably more motivated to learn than high school students (based on financial commitments alone), it did not consider that high schoolers may not be willing to engage in the initial step of watching a recorded lecture.  Though my negative experience has soured my opinion toward the flipped classroom, that does not mean it is a bad idea.  In fact, I think this is an opportunity to develop my own spin on the flipped classroom that addresses the weaknesses in how I was taught while taking advantage of some of the real benefits of a flipped classroom.

And that is why I picked Nearpod as my ed tech of the week!

Ed Tech of the Week

I have a friend who student taught during the COVID pandemic.  We went out to breakfast today to talk about some online educational tools that she found most useful, and she suggested Nearpod.  This program allows teachers to upload videos and slideshows (from PowerPoint and Google Slides) and add in knowledge checks, links to websites, and more.  Teachers can then look at insights into each student’s learning process; for example, you can see that 80% of students missed question three and know to cover that area of weakness in class the next day.  Furthermore, Nearpod can be used synchronously or asynchronously. Students can go through a presentation on their own, working at their own pace.  Alternatively, students can connect with the teacher’s presentation; the teacher controls the pace at which the slides move while the student’s device shows the presentation and allows for interaction.

This was my ed tech of the week because I think it is a great tool to address some problems that I have with flipped classroom instruction.  Teachers can see which students did and did not participate in the at-home part of the flipped classroom – watching the lecture.  If I were to use a flipped classroom model, I would have my students go through a Nearpod presentation and interact with the knowledge checks.  Then I would grade on completion rather than accuracy to at least keep students accountable for engaging in the lecture portion of the class.  The insight part of Nearpod would also let me check where the whole class might have struggled so I can address those difficulties with the class.  Similarly, if one student seemed to have a particularly hard time with the knowledge check, I know that and am the only one who knows that.  Now that student doesn’t feel embarrassed in front of their peers, and I can take time to work with them individually.  I am extremely excited to implement this technology into my classroom, perhaps not as a completely flipped model, but I will certainly be using Nearpod in my career.

If you want to learn more about this tool, you can follow THIS link to their website.

Source

Fuchs, K. (2021). Evaluating the technology-enhanced flipped classroom through the students’ eye: A case study. 3rd International Conference on Research in Education, 25-33.