“I changed the format but kept the content the same,” he said. “So I’d still have the same lecture and same homework, but it was just flipped. To get flipped learning to work, and to have your students engaged, you have to make the videos and the homework more meaningful—this is the true spirit of flipped learning.”
Mistakes to avoid
The first mistake not to make, noted Seigel, is keeping the content the same.
Not only does the video need to be more concise than a traditional lecture (think 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes) and be more engaging to students, but the video also doesn’t have to be created by the teacher.
“One myth about flipped learning is that it requires a teacher video for instruction. You can find clips on what you want to discuss on lots of other platforms—Steve Spangler, TedEd, and more—and even pull from clips in the news and media,” he explained.
Another mistake is to use the class time for traditional paper-and-pencil homework. According to Seigel, the class time should instead be used for more collaborative, inquiry-based learning.
“One teacher I was talking to said he loved flipped learning and was assigning students 45-minute college-level lectures to watch at home and then assigning them worksheets during class. Um…no. That’s not true flipped learning,” said Seigel.
For flipped learning to truly engage students in class, the period must be used for collaborative projects, inquiry-based learning, and higher-order analyzing. An example Seigel gave included a science lab his students completed involving baking soda and vinegar. Students were asked to fill a balloon with the chemical reaction caused by the two ingredients.
“I noticed this group of students giggling and messing around,” he described. “I asked them what they were doing, and they were actually filling the balloon with much more baking soda then I said to use. They said they wanted to see if they could make the balloon pop. Instead of telling them to stop, I said, ‘If you can write out the equation of how much vinegar it would take to react with the baking soda amount you used, I’ll let you try.’”
Seigel said the students never could get the balloon to pop due to unforeseen calculations in balloon stretch, but it was the time needed in class to think critically that produced the learning the flipped model aims for.
“When you’re not lecturing, it gives students the time they need to let their brains process and think,” he said. “And this is what all teachers try to go for.”
(Next page: Three more mistakes to avoid)
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