What if We Flipped Learning?

We have all experienced the struggle in math class, whether it was you struggling or seeing someone else in the class struggling. There’s just too little time in class to learn all the material for the day and to also practice it too. Then to add to that stress, having the homework and not knowing how to do it after you get home for the day. Many parents even struggle when helping their child with their math homework because it's been years since they've done it. This is where the idea of flipped learning comes into play. The idea where you spend around 15 minutes outside of class learning new material then going to class the next day to fortify and build upon that knowledge through activities in class.

Flipped learning is a good way for teachers to know who is struggling and have the time to help them in class while the students work on activities or worksheets. The outside learning portion should only really need to be around 15 minutes because of the attention spans of the students. I myself wouldn’t want to watch a 30-minute video because I would get too distracted. Now the learning method doesn’t have to be a video, but it could also be a reading. The videos also don’t need to be the teacher’s own video but could be someone else’s video if the teacher thinks it could benefit the class more. Sometimes other people just teach it better or a topic could be confusing to teach. However, I believe the majority of the videos should be the teacher’s own because the students should be aware of how they teach. 

My own experience with flipped learning was during a calculus class at my high school where the teacher was gone for about 2 months, so there was a substitute each day in class. We had to watch videos outside of class, and then do worksheets during class the next day. If someone struggled with a question, as a class or in groups, we would problem-solve together to figure out the answer because the substitute didn’t know how to do calculus. This actually helped build connections in the class from all the group discussions the class did. Therefore, I did enjoy flipped learning for the short time we had it because it helped my understanding of calculus and I got to practice more on problems in class with my classmates.

Even though flipped learning seems like a perfect idea, it does contain some potential drawbacks. If a student doesn’t have internet access at home, how will they be prepared for the next class? What if more classes decide to do flipped learning, I could take a guess that a student wouldn’t want to spend hours after school learning new material. Lastly, if there are no guides to the flipped learning or worksheets to go along with the video or reading, would the student do it?

With all things considered, flipped learning could benefit the class in many ways, in understanding the material and getting continuous practice on it. It also helps a teacher not fall behind if sick or on vacation because they can just assign their video or reading for the day. We should engage more in flipped learning since I believe it has the potential to help students improve.