What is the flipped classroom?

What is the flipped classroom?

Flipped Classroom is a form of blended learning in which students learn the concepts at home by watching educational videos online.

Flipped classroom (inverted classroom) is a pedagogical model that transfers the work of certain learning processes outside the classroom. Meanwhile, use the time in the classroom to work on the aspects in which the help and experience of the teacher are necessary.

The students prepare the lessons outside of class, accessing the contents of the subjects at home, so that later in the classroom it is where they do their homework and the most participatory activities, analyze the ideas or debate among them. All this, based on new technologies and with a teacher who acts as a guide.

Origin of the Flipped classroom

Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, two chemistry professors at Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park Colorado, coined the term Flipped classroom. Bergmann and Sams realized that students frequently missed some classes for certain reasons (illness, for example).

In an effort to help these students, they boosted the recording and distribution of videos. In addition, they realized that this same model allows the teacher to invest more attention in the individual needs of each student.

An alternative methodology to the traditional master class

The main advantage of the Flipped classroom is that the teacher adapts to the different learning rhythms and none of the students are left behind.

In a traditional classroom, the teacher transmits information that is easy for some to process, but not for others. At home, they do their homework, so those who have parents with knowledge of the subject always win. This innovative method allows each student to receive what they need in class.

The educational innovation of this pedagogical model brings excellent benefits to education in the teaching/learning process. The student becomes the protagonist, performing participatory activities in dynamic and interactive learning, while the teacher becomes a mere guide.

Teachers can spend more time in the individualized attention of students. A collaborative learning process and the environment are created in the classroom. The entire educational community (family, teachers, social community, teachers, etc.) becomes a participant in the learning process.

It allows students to access the built knowledge and expand it whenever they want. In the same way, it also facilitates the possibility for students to access the content generated and/or provided by teachers when they need it.

ICT to boost Flipped classroom

New technologies drive new learning models and much more interactive classes. The flipped classroom allows the correct use, from the educational point of view, of ICT in the classroom. It is not so much the number of technological resources as its optimized use so that the content can be created and shared.

In addition, ICT along with this innovative methodology gives us the great possibility to create and share the teaching/learning process with students and teachers from anywhere in the world, which makes it even more enriching and differentiated from traditional teaching.

Similar models to the Flipped classroom

Many models similar to the Flipped classroom have been developed under other denominations. For example, Peer Instruction (PI) was developed by Harvard professor Eric Mazur and incorporates a technique called “just-in-time teaching” as a complementary element to the Flipped classroom model.

Just-in-time teaching allows the teacher to receive feedback from students the day before class so that he can prepare strategies and activities that cover the deficiencies that may exist in students in understanding the content.

Mazur's model focuses largely on conceptual understanding, and although this element is not a necessary component of the Flipped classroom, the two models bear a similarity in their spirit.