Its been a long time since my last post and I realise that while there is always so much I can talk about in a blog, there are times when I really don't feel like talking. I guess that's a downside of doing a blog. You always have to have something to say and have the inclination to say it. A great place for extroverted introverts! Anyway enough about me. This post is about
the
flipped classroom and how to encourage student engagement in
your flipped
classroom. I know some of
you may in fact be flipping your classroom without realising that you were
doing it since the strategy of active learning during class sessions and having
students prepare beforehand is not new and is in fact good teaching practice.
The question is usually how do you get your students to prepare beforehand. The
article
The Flipped Classroom: Tips for Integrating Moments of Reflection By
Barbi Honeycutt, PhD and Sarah Egan Warren gives an interesting perspective on
flipped classrooms and student engagement. Also note that The
Flipped Learning Network is a professional learning community focused particularly on the use of screencasting in education.Please read and share your views.
Dianne,
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right. It seems I've been creating a version of the flipped classroom without knowing it! I hadn't thought of it in terms of Bloom's revised taxonomy (James) but the idea of exposing students first to new material and lower level cognitive skills in their reading prior to the class and engaging in higher level cognitive activities in class is what I'm sure many of us have been doing.
I didn't know of the flipped/inverted/peer instruction variations. It also seems true that the Humanities and the Natural Sciences, for example, tend to operate somewhat differently in this regard.
In terms of getting students to prepare beforehand, it can sometimes be difficult. I've got a mark allocated for participation and that is usually tied in large part to discussions based on prior-to-class reading. If the reading is seen to help them understand their assignments and be linked to other activities such as videos in class, that might also be useful. The heavy emphasis on the "busy-ness" of collaborative learning can be a problem, as raised by Honeycutt and Warren. "Integrating moments of reflection" - good idea.
Gabrielle
Just this morning I got a notification for a conference where a college professor in the US will be talking about her experiences in a Flopped Flipped Classroom. Point is this strategy may have the opposite effect if not well executed. There is an interesting blog post on the topic http://digiteacher.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/the-flip-flopped-classroom/ if you get the time to read.
DeleteGabrielle,
DeleteI think your right on the ball: if students don't have incentives to get them to support 'classroom flipping' they will not support it. True, classroom flipping complements teaching and raises the outcomes of learning.
Kevin
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDianne,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, this is a great place for the extroverted introvert but where should we then place the introverted extrovert? I am just curious. I like the idea of a flipped classroom, and as you indicated, I think I have used this approach to some extent without even realizing it. This was actually a suggestion made to me by some of my colleagues in trying to engage students in my large classes; where students are first exposed to the new material online via Moodle (readings, screencast lectures) and then use class time to assimilate knowledge through teaching strategies such as discussions and debates. With this approach, students must take responsibility for their own learning outside the classroom and then in the face-to face class, apply their knowledge using higher order thinking in a group setting.
I agree with Honeycutt and Warren that this approach to teaching may favour the extroverts. After reading the article by Monahan on Keeping Extroverts in Mind in Your Active Learning Classroom, I was happy to know that we really should not try to convert introverts into extroverts or vice versa (we really should not impose on one's personality trait) but as teachers we should create learning and teaching assessments that cater to the leaning needs of all students. What resonates well with me here is that the approach of a flip classroom is dependent upon students’ personality type and learning needs. Therefore, to meet the learning needs of students, a wide range of choices and opportunities for demonstrating participation is needed. What also comes to mind is that the flipped classroom approach may also work well for those “digital natives” and technologically savvy teachers, but may simply be dismissed by the "traditionalists" who are inflexible and are not willing to adopt alternative teaching methods and strategies that encourage active learning.
I also stumbled upon this online article which presents a general understanding of the flipped classroom: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf
Christine Descartes
Christine,
DeleteI agree that the approach to flipping the classroom is dependent on the students' personality as well as cultural socialization. Flipping the classroom is popular yes, but I notice most of the experiments are in cultures where students are aware of the fact that the lecturer is nor referred to as sir or miss which are really "honorific titles used in the 17th century". So I think we have a unique challenge in this environment at The UWI. BTW, your link was useful. What also stood out to me is that there is no one approach to flipping the classroom. So again, it's something that has to be adapted based on the "personality of the classroom".
Daren
The quote "Students in inverted classrooms need to have more space to reflect on their learning activities so that they can make necessary connections to course content" by Strayer (2012), taken from Honeycutt and Warren (2014) stood out to me. Reason for this is because I think that the idea of the flipped classroom is a good one and we have indeed been attempting this in the classroom for some time, but I believe there is still a long way to go. I believe that this is something that is ‘easier’ for the more mature student – such as those in Graduate programmes though. Hence I have some issues doing the flipped classroom with undergraduates, particularly the year one students that I currently have. I try to get them to go through the material before class, by assigning questions to them that will be discussed the following week, as well as indicating several different avenues to get the materials, in addition to the required text book. However, we are still seeing across the board (all the tutors are still complaining) that the students are not getting the ‘first exposure’ before class sessions, and so no higher level/deeper thinking can be entertained in the face to face time slots.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to cater to both the introverts and extroverts, as I believe that there is value to be gotten from all students. What I was considering though is that many students are labeled ‘introverts’ in the classroom, but their personality is really not that. So what I was therefore trying to figure out is why this is the case? In conducting my tutorials, I think I figured it out. Students tend to not have enough faith in themselves, as students and learners. They still believe that the teacher is the ‘Almighty’/”All Knowing’ one. So I think that the flipped classroom’s attempt at using methods like ‘think, write and share’ and journaling, can help with this. I believe that they need to get together more in groups and have discussions where they can troubleshoot and brainstorm, and in so doing they would realize that they do understand the material, that by themselves they thought that they were confused about.
But still, my worry/concern, is how to keep students encouraged/motivated to participate. Since currently, it is only by assigning grades/marks to these exercises that makes the students partake. By utilizing the ‘inverted classroom’ idea put forward by Lage, Platt and Treglia (2000), and incorporating a variety of tools to cater to the varied learning styles of all students, I think it may be possible to capture a larger portion of the student population, however this would definitely be quite time consuming in the initial stages, to set up, so some educators may shy away from this. I may be sounding a bit pessimistic as it relates to this ‘flipped classroom’ concept, but I am actually quite hopeful. I just tend to focus on the difficulties that I am seeing currently, in my attempt to figure out how to get this working in the best possible way.
Josette
Dianne,
DeleteI have like some of my colleagues mentioned been operation in a semi flipped with some elements of peer instruction in the classroom. I have experimented with online games and those were very successful. The students got scores for participation based on the number of games completed. These games were developed by the publishers and were quite animated. The games were to be completed before the class as well as watch the accompanying videos and answer questions. By the time the students got to class, they were well positioned to engage in discussions.
I also have tried a simpler method by having students prepare and deliver an entire lecture. They did this in groups and I allowed them to assign work before the lecture to the class as well as vetted their presentations. They were very engaged as them themselves became aware of the importance of preparing before hand.
I share Josette's concern in terms of how to keep students motivated in the absence of attaching grades/scores to assignments. I have had more success in engaging undergraduates that with post graduate students. The Post graduate students preparation is in the form of reading technical journal articles in advance to be able to follow and contribute to the discussions. But the sentiment expressed is that they did not have time to read since they work full time and have children. I honestly think that post graduate students should be the ones who would prepare beforehand since they should be more focused on learning the advanced material than simply passing the course. However, most of the graduate students still think, no matter how hard, I try, that they can study and pass the exam in the same manner they did for the undergraduate courses. This has been my biggest challenge.
Daren
Daren,
DeleteThese ideas sound good, in terms of playing online games and having students prepare and present lectures. What my problem is though, from the tutorial point of view is the time constraint. We only have 1 hour sessions per week and the content is so intense/expansive, that there is not much time left to venture into any of these, and still finish the content. I know these are supposed to be conducted out of the face to face setting, but face it, I am dealing with a bunch of Year 1s, the majority of who are not even interested in Economics, but only doing the course because it is a pre-requisite course for their degree... So.. What do we do? They are just interested in passing so that they can move on. And they definitely don't want to read any more than the bare essentials (and not even that at times).. and they are not even working or have children to see about.. so I feel your pain when you get the excuse from the Post Grads.. Although, from my interactions with the economics post grads, they come straight from the Undergrad programme to the Masters and have the same mentality. I think for Econ, we should probably have a work experience requirement before they can apply for higher education, as is done for an MBA for instance. This would probably allow for the more focused student to apply, and hence open up the flipped classroom in its entirety, and hence maximize on its benefits.
Josette
Dianne,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great article Dianne. It's true that we've been 'flipping our classes' without actually realising it. When we post information on myelearning or
recommend a video to our students, are we not flipping our classes? If my interpretation of Barbi Honeycutt article is correct, we have been flipping our classes everyday. But the trouble is, as points by Gabrielle, is to get our students to support the idea. Students have so many things competing for their time, they're hardly intereted in reading information online or even watching a video, which is less demanding. I've experiences where I post videos for my undergraduate students to familiarize themselves with the lesson, and absolutely no one actually looks at those videos.
But I find a strategy that actually gets them to watch a video: I told students before hand that I'll grade their participation in class based on the content of the video. The point here is that if students don't have incentives to support the idea of flipping the classroom, they'll not support it. To get their participation, we must have some punishment strategies in place. But I'll suggest that classroom flipping is a great innovation that we as teachers engage in without actually realising.
Kevin
Kevin,
DeleteI am not sure how I feel about calling it 'punishment strategies' that need to be in place for the students to keep engaged. I think this is the case currently though, because it is still a relatively new concept - that of the flipped classroom. Although we are using it in bits and pieces, without knowing it, it is something that hasn't fully been recognised and accepted. With time, and continued use, I believe that it would become engraved in the idea of classroom, and be the 'norm', and as such, student participation should become more readily.
What we need to do though as the educators, I think is to get the students to realise that learning can be fun. What they see is just a boring means to and end (the end being to make lots of money for most of them). Therein lies our problem. How though, do we get them to realise the importance of learning?
Josette
Josette,
DeleteI agree that we need to get students to realise that learning can be fun. We can be creative when flipping the classroom. For example, when using videos as an introduction to a face-to-face class, we should try to keep the videos short. Students always enjoy videos that they could view over and over and that are not very time consuming. I like Daren's suggestion about having students play games or even engage in virtual activities-this is quite innovative. Something to be mindful of is that, not all students learn at the same pace and not every student would be comfortable with the flipped classroom approach. As Debbie suggested, we must do our best as the instructor, and we should be ready to try out new methods if we want to meet the learning needs of our students.
I agree that the flipped classroom is the way to go in order for us as Academics to be more student-centered. The caveat is that we will never satisfy the needs and wants of 100% of the students. Some students may be bogged down by personal motivation/development issues. These issues may be responsible for their continuing poor performance or lack of participation in the classrooms. I have reconciled that I will try my best to satisfy the needs and wants of the present and future generation of students but know that I won't be able to reach all of them. For some students, that personal hurdle must be overcome before they can begin to grow again. I know I've went slightly off topic. I apologize for that.
DeleteApparently, as everyone seems to agree, we have all already be engaging in the flipped classroom. I must confess that it takes more out of me as an instructor to design a flipped class session and facilitate it than to do a simple lecture even with all the multimedia trimmings.
ReplyDeleteEnsuring that what emerges out of the session-that students do not become distracted by the activity, that both extraction of content and absorption of said content is achieved- takes constant engagement of the instructor. Nonetheless it is heartening to see students become excited about a topic and begin to collaborate and learn on their own.
I was very interested in Cain’s discussion about the introverted and extroverted students. It is important to accommodate for different learning types and personalities in the flipped space. Taking into consideration the students’ diverse natures and incorporating reflective learning techniques along with the active is essential to ensure comfortable sharing and learning for all students. It must be noted that, more than likely, one or more persons will probably always be uncomfortable in such a session. Can’t win them all but we can do our best.
Debbie,
DeleteI agree with many of the points you made here.
It does take quite a bit of time to incorporate/design. I’ll add that it requires more coordinated planning much earlier, at least for me.
I also agree that it is important that we keep in mind different learning styles/types and try to appeal to as much of these as possible when designing the flipped classroom experience.
Regan
Dianne,
ReplyDeleteI’ve recently become a fan of the flipped classroom perspective. In my current course, Econometrics II, I see and experience first-hand the benefits both to myself and my students. While I won’t exactly term my classroom as completely ‘flipped’, I see it as incorporating some elements described in ‘Flipping the Classroom’ (Brame) linked in your post.
I’ve incorporated online learning resources before (even in Econometrics I last semester) so this idea was not new. But students did not seem to utilize these resources before/after class as I intended them to, and I found myself having to cover material in class that should have been acquired from the prescribed notes/videos online. As such, I did not see my attempts as being fruitful.
However, this semester has proven to be a bit different. More of my students are reviewing the resources before class with the attendant benefits to themselves and me. The difference this semester comes from a change in how I go about incorporating the online resources. I now craft an assignment around the resources and require them to bring in the results for discussion at the next class. Each of these assignments is meant to help them build the skills they require for a group project that is due at the end of the semester.
Upon reflection, I think the article by Honeycutt and Warren provides a good potential explanation for my observed changes in benefits. I think that my requiring them to complete an assignment around the resources prescribed afforded students room for individual reflection before actually engaging in collaborative work. And this also helped in appealing to both introverts and extroverts. As such, I agree with the main point of the article concerning the need for reflection.
Regan
Regan I really appreciate that comment about having the students do an activity or assignment around the reading. I agree that it helps focus them and I think it makes them see the action of reading before as having "worth" or relevance.
DeleteDear Dianne,
ReplyDeleteI take it that the comments and discussions aforementioned were made and generated by a previous CUTL class:)
That being said, however, I am quite enthused by this discussion. As I understand, this concept, it is clear that in “flipped classes” students can use technology before class to watch online video lectures, demonstrations, and explanations of assignments, and it involves the students 'doing work' before actual classes. Quite an interesting idea, but not entirely new to most of us I think.
Speaking for myself though, this concept is not entirely new....the term 'flipped' is what is new...:) I have always relied on students doing work prior to coming to class so that more time could be spent in classes clarifying concerns, discussing questions from prior readings or activities, etc. Similar to my colleagues, I am sure, the response of students to 'having to do work before class' have been quite mixed....some more, some less receptive to the idea. If we are to capitalize on the benefits that 'flipped learning' affords (where teachers spend more time working directly with students instead of lecturing to them), however, getting students to do work before class is critical. I do agree with the point made by Reagan earlier though that it is quite difficult to get students to do 'anything' before class and that tying assignments to watching a video before class or reading online materials on MyElearning can be helpful in getting students into the flipped classroom.
At the same time, I believe that some learners may be more inclined and other less inclined to the idea. If however, I am to support a constructivist teaching philosophy, empowering students in this way would be important. This is where I believe that considering our teaching philosophy would be important as well.
Riann
Hi Riann you should browse the links I put in my post in addition to these comments here by former CUTL students. The links give some good take off points for a rich discussion the flipped classroom and the whole concept of student engagement.
ReplyDeleteI think many of the current students may need the concept of the flipped classroom. Is this a generational issue. I have found that many of my students come to class with the expectation that learning is the lecturer's responsibility. It may be so as they adjust to the style of adult, self directed learning. I recall my days as a student where I would pre-read before classes. I also observed that the current students are very exam oriented. They initially don't see how learning will benefit them beyond the semester's scoring requirements.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of the flipped class as it can encourage students to use the modality of learning that suits them best so that the in class session can be more productive.-Ravindra M
Yes Ravindra,
DeleteI agree. I believe that many of my own students come to class with the same expectation.....that teaching and learning must be directed by the lecturer, as opposed to us lecturers being facilitators.
As I also think about this week's activity, that is, the screencast session, I believe that screencasting may be something that can be used perhaps to get students to do something before coming to their F2F session. I think that tying assessments to those session however, through some activities may be needed.
Riann