The flipped classroom means student listen to a lecture from the teacher when introducing certain concept or demonstrate certain skills through videos. Then, the next day the student will come to school, meet with the teacher and do the assignment based on the lecture they have got at home. By doing this, it is believed that students will learn at their own pace and will allow more exploration when students are learning in the classroom.
Many teachers around the world now using this approach as an alternative for no-homework policy that have been agreed and applied in certain countries, especially due to what research said about the effectiveness of homework which doesn't give much improvement on the quality of learning. But how effective is flipped classroom for teaching and learning? Do we consider this also a homework?
Benefits of Flipped Classroom
Based on the current data, the users of this method is doubled and surprisingly this new users found that the flipped classroom are really helpful.
- Flipped classroom allow students to have flexibility to listen and watch the lectures at their own pace. There are students who can listen to it once and there are others who needs to pause, play and repeat the lectures in order to make them understand.
- It also allows students to have more personal one to one discussion and consultation with the teacher. But how long does it takes when teacher have to meet students one to one when the class is big?
- Shy student or students who cont like to ask can clarify what the listened and learned to peers, group or teacher individually.
- When it's applied online, the class will move to become more paperless and of course this will reduce the amount of paper usage in the classroom. Especially, if the follow up activities and discussion are also done online.
How to implement it in your classroom?
- Start with one lesson.
- DIY flipped lesson
- Fill-in lesson
Cons of flipped Classroom
- The weak infrastructure and lack of digital resources could be major issue when you want to apply this method. Not all students have access to computer and internet, or not all parents/ home agree with this method so they don't provide facilities for their children.
- Students' motivation could be main factor that can affect the success of the program. If the students lack of motivation to learn at their own pace, this could be big problem. They might skip the learning and sit back when it comes in group discussion in classroom.
- Teacher must have total control of the class, because by using this approach they need multiple set of eyes to monitor different group working at the same time.
Despite the benefits and downside of the Flipped Classroom, this method still became a major topic to discuss and try among the education practitioner around the world. And it's our school's turn to take this revolutionary step in education.
Adapted from: http://www.edudemic.com/edudemics-guide-to-the-flipped-classroom-for-2014/