Flipped Classrooms: Changing public education for the better.

Flipped classrooms?  In high school I had 90 minute class periods.  Usually it consisted of long lectures by the teachers on their subject, with some awkward group activities and projects, and then the inevitable tests.  If we didn't understand the class material it made doing homework very difficult, and often times there was no one at home to help us understand the material better.

Well, that was in the days just before the internet became prevalent and widely available to all.

Now we have so much content at our fingertips that some are even questioning whether or not classrooms are obsolete!  The modern smartphone has more computing power than the best home computers from my day (graduating class of 2001), and anyone can upload as much content to the internet as their hearts desire.

Here's the rub: despite the plethora of content available to anyone with internet access, there's still much more to learning than simply absorbing information.  That's where context comes into play.

How are the students learning?  Do they have strategies?  What is their emotional state?  Limiting beliefs?  Who answers their questions?  Do they work better alone, or in a group?

There's still a need for teachers.  Some say the traditional teaching method is outdated (and it comes largely from the old Horace Mann/Prussian philosophy of education which emphasized age separation and lecture-based instruction) but how can we do things better in this digital age?


Enter the Flip

Enter the "flipped" classroom, also known as Inverted Instruction.  The flipped classroom makes use of the student's access to information and allows them to absorb the course material at home-- instead of sitting through those lectures in class.

The homework is done in class, with the trained professional (aka: the teacher) ready to help assist the students in their understanding.  Peers become teacher's aides as the ones that understand the material help the ones that do not.  This is reminiscent of the one-room school houses from America's past.

Teachers gain much more satisfaction from this model as well, noting that their roles change from being the "sage on the stage" to being the "guide on the side."  During lectures, students that ask questions and participate freely are typically the ones that understand the material best.  All too many students remain silent for fear of being exposed as "stupid" for not knowing certain pieces of the instruction.

The inverted method allows teachers to reach those "silent failures" directly, with both sides gaining from the increase in communication.

Bloom's Taxonomy becomes even more relevant in the Flipped Classroom.

It was principal Greg Green of Clintondale High School in Detroit, Michigan, who was one of the first to implement the concept.  Using his "train at home/make corrections with the coach" model of coaching baseball, he was inspired to try it with his students that were seeing very high failure numbers.  Within the first year there was a 30% decrease in student failures.  Kids that were getting D's and F's on average were getting B's and talking about going to college for the first time in their life.

Everything changed, and for the better.

Now, even neuroscience is recognizing that this method of instruction is far superior to the traditional methods, and is the most complementary with how the brain naturally learns!

We know that this method works better than traditional instruction, that it's a way to better fulfill the promise of educating America whether rich or poor, but unfortunately this methodology has not been adapted in most schools across the country.

What we need is for parents and concerned citizens to become actively involved in their local public schools, encouraging principles to begin pilot programs for flipping classes.  Especially in low-income areas where education seems to be the most negatively effected, we should be doing whatever we can to improve the quality of our children's experience.




Watch Genius Mind guest, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa discuss the flipped classroom: