Flipped Classroom

What is a Flipped Classroom?

We all have this boring experience of a school where we wake up in the morning and go to school, listen to what the teacher says and copy down the notes given, come back home and start doing our homework and then realizing we haven’t understood what the teacher has taught. The flip classroom changes the places of the lectures and homework. The flipped classroom is a new concept in education where the teaching model is reversed which means that students learn at home and do their homework in class as a class activity. The flipped classroom reverses the traditional teaching style into a completely new and innovative concept which helps both the teachers and students to easily teach and learn respectively. It shifts from passive learning to active learning and has strategies which keep the students engaged. This helps the children to get more time to indulge in other activities.

 It provides more time for the teachers to interact with the students. Teacher’s need to record their lectures and post those videos online to which the students have access to. Students learn from these videos at home and they come to the class prepared. In the classroom, the teachers will conduct activities regarding the lecture posted and the students participate in zest because they have already learned about the topic at home. If any concept regarding the topic is not clear it gives a chance for the student to ask the teacher to explain and thus teachers can pay attention to each student and their problems. Later, they may check their understanding and may extend themselves to complex tasks at home. Also, doubts can be cleared through online chats and the teacher would find it easier to interact with students together at the same time to make them understand the topic.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The benefits of a flipped classroom:

• The teachers get time to spend on each individual and answer queries one on one thus it builds a strong relationship between the student and the teacher.
• It gives an opportunity for the student to rewind the lecture if they have not understood or missed any point spoken.
• It will help friends/ peer groups to sit and learn together while watching the video which enables group studying and there is an exchange of ideas.
• Teachers can share the same information with others too including the staff members, faculty, parents etc without any problem.
• It is not just a video clip, it is information shared and meaningful activities held that take place in the class after watching the video at home.
• Students take up their own responsibility and learn on their own.
• It helps the students who are absent in the class due to illness, any other work taken up, athletics or any other activity. They too get to understand the lectures at their comfortable times.
• The children with slow understanding can learn at their own pace. The ability to rewind, pause and stop gives them a chance for better understanding meanwhile the students who are smart enough to understand at a single moment may not waste their time reviewing with the rest of the class.
• The parents too can keep a watch on their children whether they are attending the lectures or not.
• Human mind remembers audio and visual things more and hence such videos are stuck in the mind of the students.
• Teachers have to give the same lecture to various classes so it is comfortable for the teachers too.

The Limitations of a flipped classroom:

• Students may keep studies for the last minute as they may think that they can watch the videos anytime they feel.
• Students may see the videos and not attend the activity lectures later which may not help to build the student-teacher relationship.
• The video and voice clearance may be a problem. If a student doesn’t understand what the teacher wants to say they might miss an important point discussed.
• Students may spend more time in front of the computer screen which isn’t good for the health.
• Not all students have access to the internet, and latest smartphones and tablets; it is difficult for such students to work under the flipped classroom method.
• Watching a video on YouTube will become market oriented. Students will have to wait for the commercials to complete before they watch their video.
• It is a big problem for the students who cannot learn by themselves and who need guidance every time.

Flipped Classroom in India

Business schools in India are increasingly using flipped classroom to allow students to listen to lectures online at home and use class time for collaborative learning. One of the first management institutes in India to offer flipped classroom is Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. Another leading business school to introduce this teaching method is SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR).

Difference between the traditional and the flipped classroom: