The snow is falling making it unwise for me to leave the house. Hence, it is a good time to generate a blog post.
The online education community I follow seems enamored of the “flipped classroom”. Of course and when I am unable to edit my own skepticism, they seem enamored of anything shiny and new that offers them something to talk about. It can be difficult to come up with topics on a regular basis. However, frequent mention of anything should not be considered equivalent to the discovery of an important innovation. Perhaps it has just been a slow news week, year, etc.
Here is my take on what can potentially be “flipped”.
The core idea in the flipped classroom appears to be that class time is dominated by instructor presentations. Some go as far as to claim BORING classroom presentations. The solution it seems is to take advantage of technology to record such presentation and make them available before (and after) class. Hence, students can carefully review this content ahead of time and then come to class prepared to ask questions and engage in deep discussion.
We used to call this expectation “read the textbook before tomorrow’s class”, but perhaps the personal video presentations prepared by the average classroom educator would be superior the content generated by the textbook author.
Here is what I really think. It would seem helpful to consider what is likely necessary for successful learning. I am talking in a practical way here – not how you or your brilliant and self motivated relatives prefer to learn. I have always liked a simple instructional design model proposed by Alessi and Trollip. They suggested that formal learning can be understood as a four stage model:
- exposure to information
- guided consideration of the information to assure understanding
- extended practice to provide fluency and increase retention
- assessment
If these stages make sense (I think they do), the challenge is then to determine how the stages will be accomplished by the largest possible members of a learning group. BTW – the stages are sequential only in some instances and feedback loops are frequently a prudent course of action.
You can attach your own labels to the stages. This is a productive exercise. Perhaps stage three might be “homework” to you. Perhaps you believe class time can be used to meet stages 2,3 and 4. My point is that the translation of these requirements into activities and the association of learning time with each activity is how we should be thinking. It is essential to analyze instruction and learning experiences in this way. What is the most efficient and effective way to expose learners to new ideas? Is a recorded lecture the best way to do this? Can we count on learners carefully reviewing prerecorded online presentations? Will tests to be required to generate compliance? What should be done if 50% appear to have reviewed the content and 50% have not made the effort?
A post entitled “ The flipped classroom is a way TO the answers” offers somewhat similar in analysis. I would suggest a different title – The flipped classroom is a way to the questions.
