Teaching & Learning Strategies
To Consider - Flipped Learning
Flipping describes the inversion of expectations in the traditional college lecture. Flipped learning rearranges the traditional relationship between student and lecturer. Lectures are moved away from the face to face component of a course and into the students own learning space. Students do not sit passively in class receiving material. Their face to face time is spent on dynamic, interactive group learning. This is where they complete tasks that support understanding and development of knowledge.
- Outside class: Students time is devoted to gathering information largely outside class by reading, watching and listening.
- Inside class: Student become hands on students who solve problems together or apply what they have learned into new contexts
It’s easy to mix up the terms flipped classroom and flipped learning. But it is a mistake to use the terms interchangeably. The flipped classroom describes a logistical arrangement – how and when the initial information is encountered by students, what is scheduled to happen in class. Flipped learning isn’t about inverting lectures and homework. Its focus is on the processes that students engage in and the outcomes they strive towards within that logistical framework.
Flipping is not about using technology to pump out information and then take it on faith that the students can understand it. The purpose behind the flip is to shift from passive to active learning in order to focus on higher order thinking skills. It’s about shifting the ownership of learning from the educator to the students. It involves putting the student at the centre of a course, and not the lecturer or the content, and assisting the student to unpack their own understanding. The educator guides the students as they apply concepts through facilitating active teaching and learning approaches. The educator also corrects misunderstandings and provides timely feedback.
Flipped learning is suited to large introductory courses and can make the traditional lecture more productive. Lecturers can focus on explaining challenging concepts, project based learning activities or solving local / global challenges and gain a deeper understanding of the subject. Handheld clickers are often paired with the flipped classroom as the combination allows lecturers to guage the level of understanding among students and customize the teaching or discussions accordingly.