Flipping

You've probably heard about "flipped learning" or "flipping the classroom".  In a typical classroom, a teacher gives direction instruction (perhaps a lecture) in class, and students do independent practice as homework.  The simplest description of a flipped classroom is one in which the direction instruction happens at home (perhaps by students watching a video) and the guided and independent practice happens in the classroom, where the teacher can provide help and support.  This is the basic outline presented in the first half of Flip Your Classroom, by Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams.  (See my quick review of this book here.)

There are a lot of advantages to simple flipping.  For one, if you provide your direct instruction on video, students can pause, rewind, or rewatch at their discretion.  They can watch when they are ready to learn, which (as we know) is not always during classtime.  For another, students who struggle with independent practice have the teacher there to help them out.

Beyond those immediate benefits, however, there are some deeper reasons to flip your classroom.  Crystal Kirch (flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com) is a math teacher in Santa Ana who presented at a Flipped Learning workshop that I attended.  She gave a presentation that outlined what truly gets flipped:

• Responsibility for learning, flipped from teacher to student;
• Face-to-face time, flipped from teacher-centered to student-centered;
• Focus of class time, flipped from lower-order to higher-order thinking skills.

If you're interested in having students take responsibility for their own learning, and in spending more time on higher-order thinking skills during your class time, find out more about flipping instruction.  Here's how:

• flippedclassroom.org - A professional network of educators who are at various stages of implementing flipped learning.
• flippedlearning.org - Resources, including blogs and podcasts, about flipping.
• #flipclass on Twitter - An active discussion among some of the leading flippers.
• The Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom - YouTube video from ISTE 2012.