What's the 'flipped classroom' teaching method?

Flipped classroom inverts the regular method of teaching. Here, the instructions are delivered online, outside of class and homeworks are done in the classroom. Sounds different and fun? It sure does! In traditional or regular classroom, a teacher's role is something like a scholar on stage, assigning homeworks that will be checked the next day. Whereas, in a flipped classroom, a teacher's role is like a guide, where the lecture is turned into an activity.

In a flipped classroom, students watch lecture online, at home, at their own pace. They communicate with teachers and peers through online discussions. Engagement of concept will take place in the classroom with an instructor's assistance.

The two key components of flipped classroom are education technology and activity learning. These influence the students' learning environment in an essential manner.

Two particular innovators played the key role in bringing the flipped classroom concept into its existence. In 2007, teachers, Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams at Woodland Park High School, found software to record PowerPoint presentations. This was then posted online, for those students who missed the class. This was spread across and soon created a new method of learning.

A poor learning method results in high drop out rate. In a flipped classroom method the drop out rate can be brought down. Thousands of videos of lectures can be uploaded for students who miss classes. In a flipped classroom method teachers get more time to help out students. Students get instant feedback. Teachers re-visit the concepts in class which were not understood in the video.

There have been positive results where the flipped classrooms have been implemented. The pass percentage went up and students no longer ended up with incomplete homeworks due to frustration. In a flipped classroom, the teacher is a guide and hence, any problem that arises during the learning process will be solved by the teacher in a manner that is quite different when compared to traditional teaching styles. For those students who have no access to Internet or technology, the teachers offer to help while the students are at school.

Things which show positive results must certainly be appreciated, accepted and incorporated where its needed. After all, learning is a never ending process and if this process is made better, then learning becomes an activity that no one would want to miss!

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