--Originally published at flnhub – Flipped Classroom Workshop
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Flipping the Classroom can Enable Teachers to Flip the Control and Ownership of Learning to the Students (Where it Belongs!)
Reverse instruction can deliver many direct benefits, like helping good students who may occasionally lose class time to extra curricular activities, or struggling students who need to rewind and review learning content, keep up with their learning.
But as the flipped classroom concept has been embraced and applied by myriad educators, many passionate, driven teachers are building on initial success and using the time they free up in class to take learning to higher levels.
Flipping teaching and learning by creating and leveraging quality digital learning content, delivered outside of the classroom, frees up time in class and opens the doors wide on how you can use that valuable face to face time with your students. Many educators embrace this as an opportunity to let students get hands-on, get creative, inquire and explore, work on projects, and develop and demonstrate subject mastery in ways they enjoy and get invested in.
Flipped class pioneer Aaron Sams explains this further in this video:
For reference, here are a variety of links that can lead readers to deeper exploration of a variety of techniques and examples of the deeper learning that can take place as teachers move beyond “Flipped 101”.
Mastery Learning
Mastery Learning is an instructional strategy and educational philosophy, first proposed in 1968 by Benjamin Bloom (yes, also the mind behind the famous Bloom’s Taxonomy). Mastery Learning “maintains that students must achieve a level of mastery (i.e. 90% on a knowledge test) in prerequisite knowledge before moving forward to learn subsequent information. If a student does not achieve mastery on the test, they are given additional support in learning and reviewing the information, then tested again. This cycle will continue until the learner accomplishes mastery, and may move on to the next stage.”
Here are a few resources for exploring Mastery Learning further:
- Lessons of Mastery Learning from ASCD
- The Fives Steps of Flipped Mastery by Jon Bergmann
- Using Mastery Learning for Success with Difficult Students by Ben Johnson
Project Based Learning
The Buck Institute for Education describes Project Based Learning as, “a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.”
PBL is easily misunderstood, and one my favorite resources to share to help clarify it is the article, “The Difference Between Projects And Project-Based Learning” from TeachThought.
Here are some more great resources from TeachThought to help you further explore PBL:
- 10 Ways To Get Started In Project-Based Learning
- A Project-Based Learning Spectrum: 25 Questions To Guide Your PBL Planning
- 8 Switches To Update Project-Based Learning In The 21st Century
Experiential Learning
I first came across the term “experiential learning” while reading Dr. Jackie Gerstein’s great “User Generated Education” blog. The concept was formalized by David Kolb in 1984: “Experiential learning style theory is typically represented by a four stage learning cycle in which the learner ‘touches all the bases'” (learn more here: http://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html).
Here are a few more articles about Experiential Learning from Jackie Gerstein:
- Experiential Learning: Is there really a question about this?
- A Natural and Experiential Cycle of Learning
- Maker Education and Experiential Education
There are various other labels and concepts that all, to my way of thinking, fall under the umbrella of “active learning”. Ideas like Inquiry Based Learning, Constructivism, Project- and Problem- Based Learning, etc., have various similarities, and ultimately all seek to engage the student in a far more engaged approach to learning than simply taking notes while listening to a lecture (not that lecture doesn’t have a place – it does, just in more limited uses than is often the case).
Implementing the flipped approach to teaching and learning is a great way to make more time available in class and let students take more control and ownership of their learning experience.
