Flipped learning

A topic in 'teaching science'

Flipped learning as pedagogy

Flipped learning refers to a way of organising teaching and learning on formal courses. Flipped learning is therefore considered a pedagogy or teaching approach.

Read about pedagogy

What is being flipped?

Whether 'flipped learning' is a meaningful idea depends upon the extent to which what it is replacing actually fits the traditional approach:

"The 'flipping' refers to a supposed reversal of the usual sequence of formal learning. A caricature of traditional teaching could be that students come to class where the person considered a relative expert, the teacher, explains the basic ideas and demonstrates the basic skills, and then students work on exercises to apply those ideas or skills. The teacher shows students how to find the roots of quadratic equations, or explains the basic principles of natural selection, or sets out a canonical account of the causes of the industrial revolution (or whatever), and then the students are given tasks that test their understanding of this newly acquired knowledge, and that give them practice in applying these ideas – which is intended to rehearse and reinforce what the learners  are meant to take away from the teacher's input. Often these tasks will be set, at least in part, as 'home-work', work to be done in private study to follow up the classroom session – so without the immediate support of the teacher. If such reinforcement is to be accessible to all the students in a class working without mediation from more advanced others, then it needs to be within the ZAD [zone of actual development]  for all the students." (Taber & Li, 2021: 25)

The reference here to the ZAD is drawn form Vygotsky's theories about learning and development where he referred to three 'zones' where learning activities could fall in relation to the current capabilities (skills, knowledge, understanding) of a learner. "Vygotsky was something of a polymath, and appropriately his thinking has influenced a number of key areas of educational work" (Taber, 2020: 277). Vygotsky distinguished between the zone of actual development where learning activities are within the current capability of the learner, and so they can make progress unaided but are unlikely to substantially develop their capabilities through the activity; and the zone of proximal development (ZPD), where a learner would need support ('mediation') to make progress   in the activity, but given that support would actually develop their capabilities. (The third zone is where the learning activity is so beyond the learners' current capacity that even with support they are unlikely to benefit form ther activity).

(Read more about the zone of proximal development)

Why flip?

Flipping learning is then motivated by the suggestion that often the understanding of information presented in lecturers (or texts or other resources) is less demanding for learners than applying those ideas.

"The rationale for flipped learning is an argument that students actually often most require support from the teacher at the point when they are expected to apply the ideas. They may have listened to the teacher's presentation, and copied their notes and examples, without internalising the key principles that will allow them to actually understand the new ideas well enough to apply them. (Of course… a skilled teacher would expect to engage learners actively in thinking about their presentations so that this would not be the case.) Therefore, it is argued, the sequence of exposition by teacher, then application later alone, needs to be reversed ('flipped'). Instead, students should come to class having already been provided with the basic information, so that class time can be used in undertaking exercises, solving problems, and engaging in challenging ways to apply the learning. Rather than squandering most of the class time with the teacher simply presenting information, that presentation should be set as preparation for class, and then the teacher can spend more time supporting students in applying the learning." (Taber & Li, 2021: 27-8)

An alternative to lecturing

Flipped learning has been trialed, researched and implemented in higher education as an alternative to traditional teaching through lecture courses (common in many science subjects) where much teaching time is based on lecturing, and students are expected to review, apply, and consolidate what is met in lectures in private study.

Research into flipped learning in a range of university courses have reported positive outcomes. However, as always with experimental research in education, it is incredibly difficult to set up really fair tests in teaching contexts as there are always intractable confounding variables, and so conclusions from studies are always subject to a range of substantive provisos (Taber, 2019).

(read about experiments)

(Read about alternative interpretations and a study on flipped learning)

Moreover, as teaching and learning contexts vary so much, it is not possible to assume that what works in one context can be generalised to another, very different (or even somewhat different) context.

(Read about generalisation from specific instances to a wider population)

So 'flipped learning' makes more sense in university settings where there are lecture course to flip than school settings where teaching is (or should not be) lecturing. There are 'negative' reasons school teachers might not wish to stop presenting information…

"school teachers may feel they cannot rely on all the students completing set preparation(where university lecturers can more justifiably take the view that any student who neglects to complete such work takes responsibility for the consequences); also, university lecturers may have more time and professional support for preparing resources, such as filming lectures." (Taber & Li, 2021: 28)

…but also positive reasons (the nature of good classroom teaching) that may man they do not see it as necessary!

"good classroom teaching is staccato in nature, moving between different episodes…some led by the teacher, some in other modes of engagement, and where the 'teacher talk' segments should not be one-way communication of information, but rather a learning conversation that is interactive and dialogic (that is, engaging with the learners' perspectives and ideas) even when it is the teacher doing much of the talking." (Taber & Li, 2021: 30)

The topic will be treated in more detail in a book being prepared for the RSC Advances in Chemistry Education series.

Work cited:
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