In the last two decades, education around the world has witnessed multiple changes, such as the rising integration of education technology, learning efficacy, and other external factors. But what did not change is the institute’s aim of ensuring value-based education for all students. Moreover, there have been concerted efforts from scholars and educators to develop strategies such as flipped classrooms to conceptualize learning and boost learner engagement.
What is flipped classroom?
The flipped classroom is a teaching methodology that focuses on introducing students to new concepts through elaborate home assignments and uses varied in-class activities. Besides, it is a type of blended learning that does not follow traditional classroom teaching; on the contrary, it emphasizes an interactive classroom environment with the goal of:
- Encouraging students to take an active role in the learning.
- Developing healthy relationships with peers and teachers.
- Polishing higher-order thinking and analytical skills while working in class and on home assignments.
Advantages of the flipped classroom
Accommodates different learning styles
There are students of varying understanding levels in a class, some may grasp a lesson sooner, and others might struggle to keep up with the pace. But flipped classroom includes several kinds of activities, such as watching a video, reading and summarizing a document, and podcasts, that help students with different learning styles.
Also, this teaching strategy is student-centric, wherein the instructor designs and delivers a lesson according to the needs of the students. Therefore, the students have the opportunity to learn at their pace and attain mastery over skills and retain information for a longer period of time. Moreover, teachers encourage them to ask questions after a particular home assignment, ensuring that learners can clear their doubts.
Collaborative learning
Apart from varied at-home activities, it also includes hands-on activities, which help establish a collaboration between the peers and instructor. Moreover, the activities include:
Discussions – Discussions are mostly group discussions on various kinds of topics.
Debates or speeches – In debates, the instructor divides the class into two groups, after which both teams need to come up with relevant points to justify their perspective. On the other hand, while delivering a speech, they speak about any specific subject in detail.
Think-pair-share activities- This includes activities wherein teachers divide the class into pairs of two or three and work on an assignment together.
Project-based learning includes students working together to complete a project based on given guidelines and a common topic.
These activities empower the social learning techniques, making the classroom an engaging one and inspiring students to collaborate efficiently.
Better use of time
Teachers do not need to follow the same old practice of coming to the class and spending a considerable amount of time completing the lecture. Instead, the strategy gives them the freedom to understand the specific student needs and implement the activities to facilitate learning accordingly. Hence, it helps them to use time judiciously, as they can help them accomplish learning outcomes and establish better relationships.
Instills a sense of responsibility and task management
One of the core components of the flipped classroom is that the activities promote active learning instead of passive receiving of knowledge. Simultaneously, it encourages students to take an active interest in developing their knowledge by accessing online materials and class websites.
Also, the combination of at-home assignments and in-class teaching encourages them to manage their tasks accordingly, thereby creating a sense of responsibility.
Effective communication between students, parents, and teachers
Institutes can utilize the features of ERP solutions to facilitate effective communication between students, parents, and teachers. Besides, the framework encourages timely interaction, both in and outside the classroom. For instance, flipped classroom helps parents understand and support their children’s learning at home during online learning.
Potential drawbacks of the flipped classroom
- The flipped classroom does not cater to the needs of students who belong to the disadvantaged sections of society. For instance, some students cannot afford computers, laptops, or mobiles, hence, they may miss out on valuable class lessons.
- One of the significant challenges of the methodology is implementation time; it takes a considerable amount of time to create at-home learning resources. At the same time, it takes time to develop engaging in-class activities and teach them to use at-home resources.
- Some students benefit more from instruction-led classroom experience and less from independent learning. Furthermore, while younger students need help from parents to do any home tasks, older students find independent learning a challenging task. Therefore, teachers must implement strategies to retain their interest by modeling time-management skills and good self-study strategies.
- Nowadays, most students are tech-savvy, and most of the time, parents find them on their gadgets. Therefore, there is already a concern for children and technology; hence teachers should assign assignments that balance the screen time. For instance, they can assign screen-free at-home resources like podcasts or readings to decrease students’ screen time.