Flipped class has been one of my favourite strategies
Flipped class
has been one of my favourite strategies of teaching math to middle and high school kids. My school had 1 child 1 laptop system with free internet. I used web-based material extensively for them to learn on their own.My role
was to create a clear task sheet and email it to them for use. It certainly improved educational practice and increased student learning for my kids. I used laptop-based work and one of the biggest challenges was special needs kids. A dyslexic kid found the colours too bright or an ADHD kid found the glitter very distracting.So, I brought in peer work with flip the class
or group work and found that some of these issues were resolved. Budget might be an issue (Bergman & Sams, 2012) but I resolved it by using open-source material only.But the advantages surely superseded the disadvantages.
Some examples:
(a) The biggest instructional advantage is as mentioned in (Kochar, 2010) kids turning into leaders of their own work. Learning becomes user driven as I saw one after the other the kids in my classes growing stronger and self-sufficient in work.(b) As a teacher, I felt that I had a breather from being in charge of teaching and could focus on building skills and attitudes in the kids. For example, when a kid would keep asking me for past knowledge, I’d say, ‘try using an online dictionary for math’ and was told by her end of the year ‘making Google my friend was the best gift’ I gave her.
(c) Self-sufficiency of life increases as the kids slowly realize the potential of working on their own with friends using web-based material or else. The dependency on the adults is reduced.
(d) When kids take leave, it is easy to catch up for them (Bergman & Sams, 2012). As a girl asked me, ‘Miss I was on leave. Please give me a link from where I can learn this topic on my own to catch up!’
(e) Differentiation enhanced as I was able to give individualized attention to the kids (Bergman & Sams, 2012).
I discovered it to be a great strategy to fulfil the needs of the (Learner profile for IB students, n.d.) such as inquiry, information processing and collaborative learning.
In conclusion,
the strategy of flipped class is immensely helpful but keeping learning at the heart we need to take it as a strategy and not get swept away. There will be kids who may not take to it and we must be ready with an alternate plan for the outliers. We could think of flipping some lessons and not all in order to allow for all kids to find some safe space in learning the subject (Bergman & Sams, 2012).References
- Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). The flipped classroom. CSE, 17(3), 24-27. https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1572117/mod_book/chapter/337962/5282FlippedClassroom.pdf
- Kochar, M. (2010). User driven learning in mathematics. Academia.edu - Share research. https://www.academia.edu/1563753/User_Driven_Learning_in_Mathematics
- Learner profile for IB students. (n.d.). International Baccalaureate. http://www.ibo.org/benefits/learner-profile/
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