Flipping the Science Classroom: Start Unit One
Flipping the Classroom: A New Pedagogical Approach
With technology improving every day, and technological resources for education growing by the day, a new pedagogical approach aims to take advantage of these educational resources entitled "flipped classrooms". The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions. The video lecture is often seen as the key ingredient in the flipped approach, such lectures being either created by the instructor and posted online or selected from an online repository. The notion of a flipped classroom draws on such concepts as active learning, student engagement, hybrid course design, and course podcasting. The value of a flipped class is in the repurposing of class time into a workshop where students can inquire about lecture content, test their skills in applying knowledge, and interact with one and another in hands-on activities.
While this strategy can be very beneficial in all settings, the science classroom lends itself to being a prime location for teachers to flip their lessons. With laboratory activities, inquiry lessons, and discussion being vital parts of the science classroom, teachers can utilize more time completing these tasks than giving notes or lectures in class.
What does Flipping the Classroom look like?
In this video from PBS NewsHour, flipping the classroom is explained. .
Benefits of Flipping the Classroom
Flipping the Classroom has many benefits which include:
- Better Use of Time: Flipping the classroom provides instruction outside the classroom, leading to more one-on-one time within the classroom, face to face. If a student is struggling with the material, the instructor can take the time to individualize the learning and provide attention where they need. With parents and students becoming increasingly frustrated with homework, projects, and activities outside of class, flipping the classroom can alleviate these issues by giving the students an opportunity to work through conceptual challenges with a content expert in their teacher, while also providing more time for projects, discussions, and higher level learning to take place in the classroom.
- Student Data: Many technological resources exist out there, such as ClassFlow and Google Classroom wheres students can easily watch content videos, answer a few questions to check for understanding, and teachers can access student data very easily. By using these platforms, teachers can quickly see how students did with the lecture material and track their student's progression all while at home. This is very beneficial as teachers are collecting data while outside of the classroom which further makes the teaching and learning more efficient in the classroom.
- Personalized Learning: In the traditional classroom setting, the teacher provides the same instruction to all students at once. Using blended learning, new concepts can be introduced at each students level of understanding. Students can work on their own pace, fully understanding and comprehending material before moving on.
- Engaging: Blended learning allows instructors to be creative in how content is delivered to students. Going beyond reading and writing, the use of technology provides the opportunity to present material in different forms. For example, videos, virtual tours, audio, virtual labs and websites brings to life concepts and may be easier to understand for students who may learn in different ways.
Moving Forward
- Do any of your colleagues incorporate flipped classroom pedagogy approached in their teaching?
- Is there an activity or lesson that you currently teach that could be flipped?
- What technology is available to your students in school, at home?
By taking these questions into consideration, we can start to look at technological resources in unit 2 in our steps towards creating a flipped classroom lesson that will benefit your students learning.
References and Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_p63W_2F_4
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IOI5-tXZvOEVCFhoN5hlsccnRa-8_77nx3GDdB6C-tE/edit#
http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/