In this review, I will be reviewing the fourth chapter of the book Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day by Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams. This book was written by two Colorado educators: Bergman, recipient of the Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching in 2002, and Sams, recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence for Math and Science Teaching in 2009. The two teachers taught high school chemistry together using the flipped classroom model, and have written this book as a guide for teachers who want to use the flipped classroom.
Chapter 4 serves as a how to guide for teachers wanting to begin flipping their classrooms. The chapter covers choosing or making videos, recommended technology and equipment, stages in making a video, making videos students will love, and how to use class time in the flipped classroom model. The authors suggest that teachers should only make videos if they feel comfortable doing so, and cannot find what they need elsewher. They warn not to use "technology for technolgy's sake" (Bergman, pg. 36). When making a video, they suggest using Camstasia Studio which captrues the teachers computer scree, voice, face, and pen annotations. They also warn that doing this may be time consuming and suggest spending a year recording each lesson of live direct instruction to build a library that can be used in the future. When it comes to making pen annotations, the authors suggest using the Wacom Bamboo tablet for its compromise between quality and affordability. Bergman and Sams lay out four stages to making a video: planning the lesson, recording the video, editing the video, and then publishing the video (Bergman, pg. 41). According to the authors, planning the video is very important. They suggest using a script to keep videos on pace and concise. They add, "The more comples your final video product will be, the more you need to plan (Bergman, pg. 41). When recording the video, the authors say that it is as simple as pressing record and executing your plan. They give the tip that having two teachers conversing in the video has been helpful for them as it is more interesting. They make the argument "Not often do you listen to a radio show and hear only one voice talking" (Bergman, pg. 45). When editing the video, the authors say that this can consume a lot of time if the teacher allows. They warn that their rule of thumb is "Do I need this video perfect, or do I need it Tuesday" (Bergman, pg. 43). When publishing the video, the teachers offer the tip that besides posting the videos on the internet, teachers can also burn them on DVD's for students lacking internet access. Next the Bergman and Sams describe how to make videos students will love. They advise to keep videos short because we are teaching to the "YouTube generation" who "want things in bite-sized pieces" (Bergman, pg. 44). They also add that animating your voice, adding humor, and making your video with another teacher help to keep students' attention and interest. Finally, the authors discuss how to use class time. They say that despite the flipped classroom being known for students consuming the lecture outside of class, "The greatest benefit to any flipped classroom is not the videos. It's the in-class time that every teacher must evaluate and redesign" (Bergman, pg. 47). Since class time is not being eaten up by direct instruction, students can spend class time problem solving meaningful problems. In foreign language classes, the authors say, "This includes having more conversation, reading literature, and writing stories, all in the target language" (Bergman, pg. 48). In mathematics "Flipped math classes are becoming laboratories of computational thinking, inquiry, and connectedness with other STEM areas" (Bergman, pg 48). They add that in social science courses, "There is more time to debate, give speeches, conduct pro se court, and discuss what students are learning more deeply" (Bergman, pg. 49). My Thoughts Although this chapter does not reference any research, it is nice to have the teachers' perspectives who have taught using the flipped classroom. Since this is something I would like to try based on the research, this chapter will greatly influence how I go about flipping my classroom. References Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom : Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. Eugene, US: ISTE. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
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This article summarizes the study carried out by Mary BethGilboy, Scott Heinerichs, and Gina Pazzaglia at West Chester University. The study focused on student perceptions of the flipped classroom in two 400-level undergraduate nutrition/diatetics courses, Professional Skills in Diatetics, and Community Nutrition. The outcome of the study indicates that students in these courses had positive attitudes about the flipped classroom and its effects on their learning.
The authors introduce their study by explaining the idea behind the flipped classroom, and why a shift in the way students are taught is necessary. Those topics have been discussed several times on this blog, but the authors' multiple references to Alison King's work is notable. King calls for instructors to become less of a "sage on the stage" and more of a "guide on the side." (King, pg. 30), and this is the idea behind a flipped classroom. However, the authors state that both roles are necessary, saying, "When faculty members serve as both a sage on the stage as well as a guide on the side, the can transform their course to meet the demands of today's learners and the calls for accountability," and that lectures have there place in education adding, "Although the lecture has been criticized, it is well documents that this for of directed instruction is necessary to teach students in situations where they hold little or no prior knowledge." (Gilboy, pg. 109). These points are interesting because the authors are not dismissing lecture, but rather saying it needs to be delivered differently. Another point that the authors make to this end is that lectures need to be shortened because "research on lectures has demonstrated that a student's attention declines after the first 10 minutes of class, and although it may return at the end of class, students remember only about 20% of material presented during the lecture" (Gilboy, pg. 109). Next, the authors describe their study. Faculty members attended monthly meetings throughout the semester to help them deliver their course via a flipped classroom. Here they learned about the 3 components of the flipped classroom that they used: before class, during class (face-to-face), and after class. Before class, students watched or viewed online resources, then took a low-stakes assessment on what they had learned to help ensure accountability. This work focused on lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy. During class activities were built around active learning where students use application, analysis, and synthesis of what they had learned before-class. The effectiveness of the flipped classroom was analyzed using an end of course survey in which 142 of 196 students voluntarily completed. Some of the findings of the study were that:
The authors' offer some advice on addressing students concerns such as instructors doing a quality check at the beginning of class on low-stakes assessments so that students understand their work is values and thus more willing to comply. In the "Lessons Learned" portion of their paper, the authors state that it is very important to obtain student buy-in by explaining the rationale behind the flipped classroom and that lectures should be 10-15 minutes in maximum length despite traditional lectures often being up to an hour long. Finally the researchers admit that their study was limited because it only looked at the students' satisfaction with the flipped classroom and not its effectiveness on learning outcomes. They call for more research to be done in that area as it is very limited at this point. References Gilboy, M. B., Heinerichs, S., & Pazzaglia, G. (2015). Enhancing Student Engagement Using the Flipped Classroom. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 47(1), 109-114. King, A. (1993). From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side. College Teaching,41(1), 30-35. |
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