Flipping your class

To flip a class is like to shuffle the order of teaching a course. The traditional order: the teacher teaches in class, students go back home and do homework and the teacher assesses students’ understandings and skills from students’ assignments and classroom performances. However, the flipped class order puts the homework-doing part ahead of the in-classroom teaching. The problem would be: how could students be able to finish the assignments before the teacher even teaches them the knowledge? The key point here is that the teacher must prepare students with sufficient and effective teaching materials for students to learn from at home. Therefore, the order of a flipped class is: students work at home (with teaching materials and home assignments), students work with peers and the teacher in class, and students continue to work after class. (references: Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer and Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom

I haven’t flipped a class yet. But here are some concerns of mine:

1. How can we as teachers make sure that materials (video, audio and texts) we create for students to work at home before class are guiding them in the right way? Unlike teaching in class when we can see students’ responses while teaching, teaching a flipped class may cause extra time and energy at students’ costs if they couldn't make the most use of the materials if the materials are not designed to-the-point. The students may spend lots of time trying to figure out something on their own, only to find that they are thinking in the wrong way when they are communicating with the teacher in class. It is possible because for some knowledge, it could be hard to be explained in materials rather than teacher’s in-person instruction. Flipping a class relies hugely on the quality of materials given by the teacher, yet the materials are hard to be designed and aligned through a period of time.

2. Since students work on their own at home, it is hard for the teacher to supervise the process. If in a large class, it is hard for the teacher to assess the learning outcome of each student in class. If a student doesn't study at home and the teacher fails to assess that in class, the teacher would lose the control of tracking the learning of the student. How can we make sure that all students would go through all materials and study on their own at home?

3. How does the teacher assess the outcomes of students’ learning at home in class observations and after-class assignments?

4. Time is a big concern, too. The teacher may have to commit a lot of time to preparing the materials, not only keeping in mind the learning habits of his/her students but also taking into account the different proficiency levels of the students. Is there a rubric for designing materials for a flipped class?  

I hope I can answer these questions after I have flipped a lesion myself with TED.