There is much talk about the flipped classroom these days. So, what is a flipped classroom and how are instructors to recognize potential “flippable” moments of a learning experience?
Flippable moments of the learning experience occur when an instructor stops instructing and allows the students to explore, discover, struggle, and resolve answers to questions on their own. Barbi Honeycutt, scholar and educator at North Carolina State University, offers some advice in her article, Looking for “Flippable” Moments in Your Class.
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Look for confusion. When you notice or anticipate students having problems with a particular concept that will make it difficult to expand their thinking, have them review the materials with practice exercises, by viewing related videos several times, or even do another related group activity.
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Look for the fundamentals. Make sure that students have mastered an essential, fundamental skill before expecting them to move on to an activity that would require higher level thinking.
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Look at extra credit questions. Extra credit questions are often the sort of questions that involve higher level thinking, and so provide good material for activities beyond the classroom experience.
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Are students bored in your classroom? If so, that’s a sign that you need to flip some parts of the learning environment. Let the students take more responsibility for their learning, plan and provide opportunities for them to do the talking, thinking, creating, and explaining.
References
Honeycutt, Barbi (March 25, 2013). Looking for flippable moments in your class. Faculty Focus: Focused on Today’s Higher Education Professional. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/
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