At NCTM 2016 in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to attend a session on Flipped Classrooms. I remember going because a co-teacher was raving about how much they enjoyed flipped classrooms and there are countless blogs describing why a flipped classroom is the way to teach.
On a surface level it makes sense. For an example, I think about how long I spent going over vocabulary and having students get the definitions down in some form. If they are just copying definitions outright, then it only takes maybe five to seven minutes in class, but then what’s the point of doing it in class? I always try to have some time for students to try and connect new vocabulary to other words from the unit or have students write anti-definitions or have students illustrate an example or contribute to a word wall. Now, my vocabulary time is meaningful and worth my effort and attention as the teacher, but also now pushes the fifteen to twenty minute mark! Imagine freeing up those minutes by flipping their vocabulary activities or being able to devote more time to the language because problem example notes could be flipped. The appeal is pretty easy to see. This infographic also highlights some incredible pro’s of the flip model. Students can get immediate help on work because it is all done in class. Students can take their time with their notes because it is a video that can be paused or jumped back. Teachers can spent less time fighting for the attention of a large mass of diverse learners and instead spend their time giving instruction at a level that is relevant to smaller groups. Not to mention, all podcasts and screen recordings can be re-usable in future years! When put in these terms, it feels like a flip model is the obvious solution to math classroom woes. The most obvious hurdle to implementing a flip is that it assumes students can participate in the flip from home. The entire premise is that notes, lectures, and examples are just as effective when recorded and can be done more independently than actual concept mastery work or projects. Therefore, doing notes, lectures, and examples at home is the most efficient way to structure a class to maximize a teacher’s impact. What happens though when a student does not have internet access at home and, due to family obligations, cannot find a way to get themselves to a public library for an hour to take notes? What happens when, due to poor implementation perhaps, student buy-in is low and they simply do not watch the videos? I fully believe that the model is just as effective as they claim it is when done properly. However, I also recognize that schools do not have control over a student’s out-of-school life. So, I do not believe it is feasible in every situation to implement with quality. I know several of my students do not have internet access at home. I know several of them share a single school device with multiple siblings. I know some of them do not get home until after eight o’clock at night due to extracurriculars or parent work schedules. Some of them do not live near a public library and have no adult to take them (and I do not believe that encouraging 11 and 12 year olds to take mass transit alone is a proper solution to making a flip classroom work). I also believe that some concepts are not taught best through video. There some lessons like surface area where I want students hands on with an object to rotate and measure from the very beginning. Not that I believe a flip model would hurt these concepts but I wonder if it really is still efficient if I would intend to re-teach it with manipulatives anyways. I do not mean to speak negatively of a flip model. I have used it situationally before and leveraged it for concepts that I believed were appropriate. Using a flip model for interest formulas was effective for my classroom. However, I struggle with the idea of committing 100% to a flip model. I feel that way about most instructional models. There is no one perfect instructional method for all mathematics and my classroom is a blend of different techniques and practices. If there was one truly superb model, then most of our educational issues would be solved by now. To quickly address Challenge Based Learning, I feel that is more in line with what I am getting at above. Challenge Based Learning is a flexible and blended approach that takes the strength of multiple models. Challenge Based Learning by definition promotes a growth mindset and student engagement. Challenge Based Learning incorporates the inquisitive elements of PrBL, the authenticity elements of PBL, but does not shy away from the occasionally necessary traditional methods. Challenge Based Learning definitely has a future in my classroom, the trick is, just like with PBL, is how to do it well.
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October 2017
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