Flipped Classroom – The Ultimate Guide

What Does A Flipped Classroom Mean?

Classroom flipping is a student-centred approach to teaching and a form of blended learning that reverses the traditional learning process.

In a traditional learning environment, the teacher stands in front of class and delivers the curriculum while the students sit and listen. 

The students are then given homework to do after school to reinforce what they have learnt during class.

A flipped classroom simply means that this traditional model is reversed.

Instead of learning in the classroom, the students learn the content at home through a variety of online educational resources. 

When they come to class the following day, the classroom becomes a dynamic, interactive learning environment where students can apply their newly acquired knowledge through classroom activities, student collaboration, and practical applications. 

The teacher is there to facilitate this and answer any specific questions each student has on the subject matter.

In the flipped classroom model, the teacher moves away from being an educator / lecturer and becomes more of a guide and facilitator in the students’ learning process.

What Are The Advantages Of Flipping The Classroom?

A more personalised learning experience is achieved

Since students come to class having done their learning at home, it means the teacher can spend class time answering specific questions each student has around the subject area, forming a more individual and personalised experience for each student.

Students can learn at their own pace

When learning takes place in the classroom, it can be difficult for the teacher to deliver the information at a rate and pace that suits all students. 

When the acquisition of knowledge happens at home, students can digest the content at their own pace. They can stop, pause or rewind the online content as they please.

Students are no longer left behind in class

Due to students learning at different speeds in class, inevitably some of the slower students can get left behind and sometimes struggle to keep up with the pace of the lesson. This can occasionally have a negative effect on their self confidence. 

In the flipped model, students are more likely to arrive in class the following day on more of a level playing model with the rest of the class.

Maximises classroom collaboration

It can sometimes be tough to squeeze in sufficient time for classroom activities and student collaboration when there is so much curriculum to cover in class.

When the classroom is flipped, Students have more time and more opportunities to apply concepts and engage in collaborative activities in class, which can help them develop team working skills.

Gives students time to process the content 

The flipped classroom means that students can arrive at school a day after processing the curriculum at home. This gives the student sufficient time to properly process what they have learned and can enable them to arrive in class with a better grasp of the material. 

Multiple online resources can help enrich the students’ learning experience.

In the flipped model, the teacher has the ability to create a variety of online resources for students to learn from. This variety and mix of media has the ability to enrich the student’s learning experience beyond what might have been possible in the traditional classroom.

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Flipped learning was introduced at Clintondale High School in the U.S in an effort to improve it’s low pass rates across the majority of subject areas. The results were quite astonishing:

• The failure rate of English classes decreased by 63%
• The failure rate of Maths classes decreased by 70%
• The failure rate of social studies classes decreased by 67%

Check out the full case study here

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Tips To Creating Your Own Flipped Classroom Videos

So now we know a little more about what flipping the classroom means and the benefits associated with it. 

How do you go about finding revenant resources for students to learn at home from? How do you create engaging video lectures for your students to truly engage in?

Here are a few tips to help you create killer video lectures for your students to watch from home.

Get some screen recording software

If you fancy presenting a slideshow with a voiceover, then getting yourself a screen recording tool is a must. 

Check the free chrome extension Screencastify – it’s completely free and enables you to record your screen while you talk through the course content. 

Screencastify lets you capture your tab, whole screen, or just your webcam. You can even embed your webcam anywhere in the recording.

Jump straight into the content!

Don’t try and get too fancy with intro music or fancy graphics at the beginning of your video, dive right into the learning, the first 10 seconds matter and you want to make sure to grab your students’ attention as fast as possible. 

Neutral background

Aim to make sure your background is as neutral as possible to avoid any distractions during your video, this will help your students maintain maximum focus during your lesson.

Also try to make sure that the light source in the room is facing you rather than behind you to ensure your face is illuminated as much as possible.

Factor in blank space around you

It’s always a good idea to allow for lots of space on either side of you when you’re filming yourself, as you may want to add annotations, pop-up text, or images to reinforce what you are saying in the post-production of your video.

By allocating sufficient space, you’ll end up with a cleaner looking end-product.

Sound acoustics / invest in a microphone

Often neglected, sound is massively important. If your students are struggling with hearing you, it’ll make it harder for them to learn. Ensure you are in a closed off environment that will contain your voice.

If you can afford it then invest in an external microphone – it’ll make a huge difference to the sound quality by adding a richer, clearer output of sound.

You can also use a tool like audacity to help clean up the audio and maximise its quality in post-production.

4 Steps To Flipping The Classroom

Step1. Identify Where In Your Course Flipping The Classroom Makes Most Sense

There will be areas of your course content that will benefit from the flipped classroom model more than others. The task is to identify these areas of your course that will benefit most, so that you can leverage them.

Step 2. Use Class Time to Engage Students In Application Activities 

Identify the best ways for students to undertake practical activities that demonstrate a successful application of their knowledge in class. 

In the early phases of trying out flipped learning, it’s a good idea to experiment and use a variety of these activities, so that you can ascertain which ones your students are most responsive towards.

Below are some examples of ways you can engage students in application activities:

• Discussions & debate
• Problem solving activities
• Collaborative learning activities
• Peer-instruction

Step 3. Identify How Students Will Consume Course Content At Home

There is a wealth of online EdTech resources and endless possibilities for how students can consume course content, which is a blessing but it can also make it challenging to decide on which to use. Types of online resources to consider can include:

• Video lectures presented by the teacher
• Slide show presentations
• Podcasts
• Online reading materials
• Curriculum-based EdTech resources

Step 4. Evaluate the impact of Your flipped classroom

The impact on student grades will be the most obvious metric to focus on when introducing new learning strategies. 

Whilst this is definitely one of the most important factors to consider, it’s worth pointing out that these initiatives should always be given sufficient time for the students to fully acclimatise to this new approach.

Tracking grades over the course of a year will give you a clearer idea on the effectiveness of your flipped classroom as students gain greater familiarity with this new approach to learning.

Alongside student grades, weekly metrics such as video consumption stats, and how well students are participating in the application activities, will also give a good idea week-by-week on how well students are adapting.

Many online EdTech tools will provide the teacher with a dashboard where they can monitor student participation within the learning material. 

For teachers who teach the same course content to multiple classes, it could be an idea to apply the flipped learning model to one of the classes and use the other classes as a benchmark to measure against. This could be monitored over the course of a year to give a very clear idea on the performance.

EdTech Tools To Facilitate Flipping The Classroom

Alongside recording your own videos, it’s a good idea to find a variety of online resources to support your students’ home learning process.

Below is a handful of some of the best-rated online learning materials that have been independently reviewed by schools and teachers on EdTech Impact that you could integrate into your flipped classroom strategy.

GCSE Pod

Provides high quality curriculum content in over 28 GCSE subjects. Accessible on any device, their engaging format and key exam content in their Pods makes it super simple to learn, understand, and recall in the flipped classroom.

Tassomai

A brilliantly impactful learning and revision platform for Maths, English and Science. It’s used by more than 500 schools in England and Wales. Their fun micro-quizzes and engaging tutorial videos are a brilliant way to teach material ahead of class in a flipped classroom format.

Your Favourite Teacher

Used for homework, independent learning and supporting students outside of traditional classroom settings, this up-and-coming platform was made by expert teachers and is a perfect accompaniment to a flipped classroom.

There are more than 500 videos, quizzes and downloaded resources for you to cherry pick from to support your flipped learning strategy.

Twig Science Reporter

A fantastic free science news service that brings STEM news, exciting discoveries, and awe-inspiring stories / inventions at the click of a finger.

This is a brilliant resource to support STEM learning in the flipped classroom by giving students real world context to reinforce the course curriculum. 

ConquerMaths.com

With over 1,200 video tutorials available for students to watch at home, Conquermaths.com is a hugely versatile Maths tool to support a flipped classroom.

Teachers can monitor learning progress with its impressive built-in assessment tools, while narrowing the attainment gap between stronger and weaker pupils through its extensive home learning video resources.