Flipped Classroom

Students who get conventional education, with lessons in class and project work assigned for home, are getting shortchanged. Their education is not as complete as it could be.

In a flipped classroom model, students are more likely to get the whole picture.

The flipped classroom stands conventional education on its head. Instead of assigning students big projects to complete independently or even as teamwork outside of the classroom, the project work gets done at school and the lessons happen at home.

How does that work? Teachers put together their lessons in the form of podcasts or video. They post them online. The students then have the assignment of watching/listening to the lessons outside of class. Once they've had the virtual lesson, they come back to class with the background they need to begin the project work.

In class, the students get together in collaborative groups to work on their projects. The benefit of doing this in class over doing it at [someone's] home is that if they're in class, they have the teacher as a consultant as well as their classmates. When someone hits an "aha!" moment, they can share it with the rest of the group. Collaboration can inspire more creativity.

So, the key benefit to the flipped classroom, as we see it, is that students get the opportunity to more clearly demonstrate their understanding--or lack of understanding--with the teacher right there, ready to support them and help them out. If students get the "lesson" ahead of the activity, they should be more likely to come into class with questions, having had some time to reflect on the material (assuming they did it in a timely fashion).

Here's our PSA for the Flipped Classroom: