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jleopold  ·  3138 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The ‘flipped classroom’ is professional suicide

    Instantly suspicious of flipping my classroom, I wondered how my students would find time to do their assigned reading if they were watching class videos in their dorm rooms three times a week? I also wondered what the rest of my class would be doing while I personally interacted with other students, one by one. I am yet to get satisfactory responses to either of these concerns.

I'm not sure how deep the author went into flipped classrooms, but I don't find those to be especially valid concerns. The point of a flipped classroom is that the homework and lecture are flipped, so even assigned reading would be done in class, where peers can help and discuss and the teacher or professor can answer questions. It can affect the the timing of the class though. Nor does it necessitate one-on-one interaction. The point is to have the teacher and peers avalible for questions and discussion. One-on-one meetings are far from required, though there are other activities that students can do alone or in groups while these meetings occur.

There is also an aspect of the author having overlooked several technologies which have allowed teachers to post lectures, notes, and other papers. Sites like Moodle and Blackboard allow direct interaction through the internet, and give the teachers a password-protected area to post their content. Nor is the in-class interaction something that can easily be lead by non-expert. The most important learning still happens in the classroom, it is just, flipped classroom advocates think the most important learning happens in a different place and manner.

Most importantly, flipped classrooms tend to really benefit students. I had a teacher try it out this year, and there were some complaints about the lectures (Khan academy) but not the system. I hope that the author simply wasn't aware of the effects on students. I can understand that author, as a professor, would be worried about his career, and those of his pers, but as a student, I believe the teacher should always put the learning and well-being of the students first. If flipped classrooms have the potential to really benefit students, teachers and professors should look really hard to find a way to make them work, even at some potential risk to themselves.