For teachers struggling to connect with their students, the solution might be flipping your classroom.
In a flipped classroom, students familiarize themselves with new materials outside of class via videos, and then use classroom time for activities that reinforce that material or involve higher order thinking.
Popularized during the pandemic-forced shift to virtual learning, flipped classrooms predate 2020 by a decade. This hands-on approach to learning that prioritizes collaboration keeps coming up because research continues to validate it.
“Students only retain 10% of what they hear, but their retention when they’re ‘doing’ is something more like 80%,” said Franca Fiorentino, an instructor with NYSUT’s Education and Learning Trust instructor and a member of the Bellmore Merrick United Secondary Teachers. In her ELT course, “Master the Flip and Beyond,” Fiorentino explains how structuring teaching in this way also allows more time for student differentiation and ensures that students have time to ask questions about their work in class.
Flipping classrooms can also refresh teachers because it empowers students to take the lead. Fiorentino saw this in her own classroom, where students were walking in knowing exactly what they need to know, and exactly what they need to do next. “They were revived. And if the kids are revived, the teachers will be, too,” she said.
But flipping the class doesn’t have to be all at once, and it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Here are four different ways to consider incorporating a flipped model into your classroom:
