Utilising a 'flipped classroom' approach
Apr 18, 2020
Have you ever tried a ’flipped classroom’ approach to teaching your students? It can be a really useful way of maximising the benefits of class time with your students.
Traditionally, content is delivered in the classroom by the teacher, and students are given homework questions that are designed to help them process the content learnt during the lesson. Flipped learning reverses this model - instead, content is delivered either via reading, recorded video, or audio, to be consumed at home during ‘homework time’, and then the lesson time is used to help students process the information. There are various benefits of this:
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If students miss a class, they can easily catch up on important content.
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When content is delivered in class, students may become distracted or lost. With flipped learning, students can pause, rewind or rewatch as needed.
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When students are completing homework questions, they may run into obstacles and end up not completing it. With flipped learning, the teacher is available to the student whilst they are completing the activities, meaning that they have more support.
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It frees up class time to help students process the information and clear up any misunderstandings. Instead of individually answering questions at home, students can work with their peers or participate in group discussions and activities that will allow a deeper understanding, and can get instant feedback and support from their teacher.
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It also frees up class time to allow for more activities that help to develop important 21st century skills (such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, and so on).
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It gives teachers time during class to check in with students, have one-on-one time, develop rapport, conduct informal assessment, and make observations of student learning (this can often translate into less marking/ written feedback that would ordinarily have to be done outside of class time).
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When used in conjunction with project based learning, it means that students can access the information any time that they need it throughout the duration of the project. Accessing information ‘just in time’ - ie. when it is most useful to students in developing their understanding of a concept or topic, often has the biggest impact on learning.
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For teachers, once you have made these videos once, they are there forever, saving our future selves a tonne of work.
How to effectively implement flipped learning in your class:
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Keep the content delivery short - 10-15 mins is generally a good length for high school students (yrs 7-10), although Yr 11 & 12 students can do a bit longer.
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Encourage students to make study/ summary notes whilst watching the video.
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Depending on the technology access that your students have, it may be a good idea to provide various ways of accessing the content. If you are doing a visual/audio presentation, make sure all the content is in the audio and your slides are just providing anchors/ signposts, as well as images to help your visual learners. You can then convert this video recording into an audio recording for those who may not have enough data at home to download a video. You can also provide written transcripts with the slides for those students that may need a hard copy/ print out to take if they don’t have any capability to download a recording at home.
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It could also be a good idea to have students complete a short quiz at home (or during the first part of the lesson) after they have consumed the content. You can use apps like Kahoot or Quizizz that make it fun and also provide you with detailed analytics. That way, you can see who might need some extra help during the next class. If there are common mistakes across the class, you might choose to spend the first part of the lesson re-teaching those concepts in a different way.
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Alternatively, if your students aren’t able to access this technology, you can spend the first few minutes of the lesson doing a question and answer session as a class.
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You can also encourage students to email you any questions before the class just in case there are any issues.
In terms of how to make your video recordings, the simplest starting point is just to do a voice recording over the top of your PowerPoint slides, and then save it as an MP4 recording. If you have more time or want to get a bit more creative, you could use programs such as iMovie or an app like Powtoon. There are heaps of options out there if you want to look into it further, it just depends on your time and resources.
I hope you have fun experimenting with this approach! Let me know how you go.
Kelly :)