To flip or not to flip

Posted by: Dr Ashley Tan on: October 11, 2011

• In: Uncategorized
• 1 Comment

  by  followtheseinstructions 

The Innovative Educator has created a small buzz by declaring that she is not flipping over the flipped classroom.

I paraphrase her five reasons for not doing so: 1) not all students have the technology, 2) it does not get rid of homework, 3) it does not change bad teaching, 4) students are still grouped in classes and cannot really go at their own pace, and 5) lecturing does not equal learning (basically an elaboration of #3).

We cannot wait for every student do be equipped with the technology. That is not likely to happen, and even if it did, the technology would quickly go obsolete.

Flipping the classroom is not about the technology. It could, however, be a push factor for allowing more technology to be used in schools and at home.

In a flipped classroom, learners are required to do work at home, but it is not the practice portion of learning but the get information part. I’d rather get that information at my own pace and practice when I can ask someone for help. As a parent, I would also like to know what a teacher was saying in class. A flipped classroom enables that.

I fully agree with the points about bad pedagogy. Again, the flipped classroom is not about the technology but about the pedagogy. Flipping the classroom might make teachers rethink the way they teach, but it does not guarantee better teaching.

How about students not being able to truly go at their own pace and follow their interests? Well, that is not what a flipped classroom can do on its own.

The flipped classroom is not a big jolt to industrial age teaching. It is more like a tickle. Those that respond might wake up to the fact that they need to change the way they teach. But it is not going to bring the factory down. The flipped classroom is an evolution, not a revolution.

Tags: flipped classroom