7 Stories From Educators About Teaching In The Flipped Classroom

Informed articles and commentary on this powerful and often misunderstood concept.

The University of Wisconsin's Stout School of Education publishes a great Tech Tips newsletter. The last few issues of this newsletter have been packed with resources focused on topics near and dear to us here at EmergingEdTech, and we strongly recommend signing up for this free publication. I spent a good deal of time reading and appreciating the resources shared in a recent Tech Tips newsletter focused on the concept of “the flipped classroom”. Below I have shared several of the articles listed in the newsletter, along with a few more that I searched out, and I've provided a little insight into each of them.

There is a wealth of experienced, constructive knowledge shared in this content. If you wish to learn about what the flipped classroom is and what it isn't, or just better understand how teachers have used this new-age model, then read on. Another phrase that is synonymous with “flipping the classroom” is “reverse instruction”, and this term is used in some of these resources.

The Flipped Class: Myths Vs. Reality: In this 3 part series of articles, a variety of teachers who have used the model do a wonderful job of clearing up misconceptions and sharing lessons learned. These articles offer a lot of informed insight into what to do and what not to do when flipping the course content delivery and instruction model.

The Flip: Why I Love It, How I Use It: Shelley Wright (in an article published by Tina Barseghian) explains, “I love the flip. I do. And I realize by saying this I’m making a controversial statement. I believe if used judiciously, in the right context, the flip can free up valuable class time and provide the background knowledge that is fundamental for students to then go forward and wrestle with higher order thinking.”

Advancing the Flip: Developments in Reverse Instruction: This post by Jonathan Martin on the award winning Connected Principles Blog is ripe with references, in addition to sharing insights into classroom flips performed by instructors at his educational institution and others. He also shares and quotes from a variety of other educator's postings about reverse instruction.

The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture: Jackie Gerstein breaks the flipped classroom into 4 distinct phases and discusses them in this thorough article, providing a lot of resources for support and further exploration. Gerstein's article has a strong emphasis on experiential, hands-on learning activities. One of the slides in an included SlideShare presentation states, “I believe my role is a tour guide of learning possibilities – providing students with a menu of these possibilities”. The author clearly feels that the flipped classroom lends itself to this approach.

Flip your classroom through reverse instruction: This post opens with the question, “Have you ever experienced the unique and rare moment when, after doing something the same way for years and years, you have an epiphany and wonder, ‘why am I doing it this way?'” The article goes on to discuss this instructor's experiences implementing reverse instruction in a high school Anatomy & Physiology class.

The Flipped Classroom: Instructional designer Chris Faulkner states, “if significant learning opportunities are capitalized on during class time, this could truly change learning and solve the problem, at least temporarily, of engaging students with material outside of the classroom.” In his article, he discusses pros and cons of the flipped classroom model.

Reverse Instruction: More from Instructor Shelly Wright, who explains in this post that reverse instruction is no panacea, but that it can clearly have its benefits. She concludes this article with the statement, “I no longer have a classroom; I have a collaborative problem solving studio. How great is that?”.

Thanks so much to the people who put together the Tech Tips newsletter at UW-Stout, and to the authors of all these great articles, for sharing their experiences. I loved this idea when I first learned of it, but had little appreciation for how much attention this concept has been getting until I read these articles. If you know of other resources like this, or if you've had some experience flipping the classroom yourself, please comment and share! Thanks.

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Education Technology Leadership Spotlight: Celebrating the Work of Salman Khan
10 Internet Technologies Educators Should Be Informed About – 2011 Update
Why You Should Consider “Implementing Instructional Technology Innovations” (UW Stout online course)