The Flipped Classroom

What is a flipped classroom?

Many people may ask themselves this question if they are unfamiliar with this term. It’s definitely not a classroom with all the furniture flipped around and turned upside down. This week in my Math 371 class, Technology for STEM Educators, we discussed the idea of a flipped classroom and its benefits and drawbacks.

A flipped classroom is a teaching method that reverses the typical classroom mold. In a flipped classroom, students watch lecture videos and take notes at home, and during class time students work together to apply the material, ask questions, and get immediate feedback from the teacher. Some overall benefits are students can learn at their own pace, students can pause and rewatch the lecture, and it’s a great alternative for when students are absent. Another big advantage, especially in the math classroom, is that parents have access to lecture videos to help their children based on that. Some drawbacks are that students have to be independent and find time outside of class, it promotes extra screen time, and some students may not have access to the internet at home.

In high school, I had experience with a flipped classroom in the math setting. My high school geometry class was the flipped classroom method. In my opinion, I found it very beneficial. Every day before class we would have a video to watch on Edpuzzle. The teacher also provided us with guided notes so that we could follow along. During the video, we would have to answer questions to make sure we were paying attention. Then during class, we would have worksheets or group activities that applied the content from the video. The teacher was able to walk around and help everyone. She was able to provide direct feedback right away to students who were struggling. I enjoyed the flipped classroom method because I could work at my own pace. In math, in high school, I was always working ahead so this allowed me to do this without getting into trouble.

As a future math teacher, this method of teaching is something I will take into consideration. It has its clear advantages and disadvantages. One of my main goals that I have as a “teacher in training” is that I want my future students to not only understand the material I am teaching them but to be able to apply it as well. The flipped classroom method is a great teaching method to help students apply the information. I believe this is something I would like to try in my future classroom after a few years of teaching. I would love to use it some days and have the traditional method the other days of the week. The flipped method can be used as a good switch-up then a traditional lecture every day. When implementing the flipped classroom method in my future classroom, I understand that most students will try to skip the video and come unprepared to class. To prevent this, I will assign the videos for points, and along with what I did in high school, students will have guided notes and will have to answer questions within the video.

While the flipped classroom has many benefits, it also has disadvantages, and it’s important to be mindful of that if you want to implement it in your classroom. The flipped classroom can be one way for students to foster a deeper understanding of the material and get help from the teacher right away.

Madyson Stricherz

What Is So Scary About Math?

Are you scared to continue being a math major?

This is a question I was recently asked by one of my professors as an end-of-semester reflection. On the one hand, absolutely. I knew the material after that point was only going to exponentially get harder. On the other hand, I was (and am) so excited to continue learning more about math, despite the challenges that I know are ahead of me. Why should I be scared?

There is this perception that math is this difficult subject that only the smartest students are going to succeed in. It’s nothing more than a subject schools force them to learn to progress in school and graduate. It’s something to be feared.

There is some truth to this. Math is an increasingly difficult subject that some students are going to excel in more easily than others, just like every other subject taught in school. And schools do require students to take it, but for many beneficial reasons such as the real-world applications of math and the problem-solving skills that math helps develop.

But why is math so dreaded? Where is this fear of math coming from? What is so scary about math?

In her article, “Math Phobia? Or School-Math Phobia?”, Angela Chan Turrou proposes the idea that it’s not math itself that people are afraid of, but rather the “drill-and-kill” form of math they were taught in school. From a young age, kids are shown that math is nothing but timed tests and memorized steps. The problem is that’s not math; that’s school-math. By putting so much importance on these school-math practices, it’s created widespread fear of the only math these kids know, and thus long-term math phobias are born.

So, the question is, what can we do to change this? Well, for starters, we can rethink this “drill-and-kill” mentality. That’s not how children think. Children are imaginative and curious; their brains aren’t at the place where they should be overly focused on the memorization of mathematical processes. We should focus on prioritizing children and the way they think, building their learning on their “curiosities and ideas”.

Math doesn’t need to be something we are afraid of, but we first need to stop making it something to be feared.

Maegan Questad

References

Turrou, A. C. (2025, January). Math phobia? Or school-math phobia? Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, 118(1), 80-81.

https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/why-is-math-important/#:~:text=A%20strong%20foundation%20in%20math%20can%20translate%20into,school.%20Its%20applications%20to%20real-life%20scenarios%20are%20vast. 

How Can Technology Improve Mathematics Instruction?

Last week, our Math 371 class, Technology for STEM Educators, examined the appropriate use of technology in teaching.  But what does that mean?

• Don’t use technology just for the sake of using technology. An example that I gave of that is using an iPad to roll a pair of dice when you could just have students roll physical dice. There are definitely advantages to using technology for this, as have 30 students rolling dice in your classroom would be noisy. But does the technology enhance the experience, and I would say that it doesn’t.
• Technology should help students with their understanding of the material. Now when we say technology, do we mean it has to be electronic? I would argue that manipulatives could be considered technology. In this case, something like algebra tiles can help students understand factoring better so that would be an example of an appropriate use of technology.  If you don’t have a set of algebra tiles for your classroom, you can use them online at https://polypad.amplify.com/p#algebra-tiles.
• Technology should help both the student and teacher work more efficiently and effectively.  An example of this would be using Desmos or Geogebra to graph a parent function and translations of that parent function.  Typically, in algebra we often graph y = x^2 and then we ask students to graph y = (x - 3)^2 or y = x^2 + 3 Using online graphing tools allows us to graph these functions more quickly and easily see the changes that occur.
• Technology shouldn’t have a steep learning curve. Some technologies are hard to learn to use. One that comes to mind immediately is the TI-Nspire calculator. This calculator is very powerful, but it isn’t user-friendly, making it more challenging for both students and teachers to use. This is why I prefer Desmos when it comes to graphing in mathematics.
• Technology should provide feedback to students and teachers. One technology that I have been using in my geometry course is FullProof. It is an online software for writing two-column proofs in geometry. I have used it for the past four years and it is wonderful. Students can ask for hints if they are stuck, and they can also check their solution immediately and get feedback. The teacher can get a report on how many times a student asked for hints on a problem and how many times they submitted it.

While technology can be wonderful, we need to be thoughtful about using it in our classrooms. We want technology to enhance learning, not hinder it, and we don’t want it to be a distraction.