I have been reading about the notion of the 'flipped classroom' for about a year. The new young teachers who are getting much credit for this "new" idea should be very proud. Honestly, my thought is that they have taken a tried and true technique and added some bells and whistles to it. Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sarns, both from a school in Colorado, early on, discovered a piece of software that would allow them to post PowerPoints online. In their earliest iteration of the technique, the teachers designed their PowerPoint presentations to be viewed by students who had been absent from class. The online lectures started to spread beyond just their students and the two teachers were soon asked to speak to other teachers about this idea of a flipped classroom. The idea evolved to mean that students were expected to watch podcasts and online videos to prepare for class the next day. This frees up valuable class time for the students to engage in cooperative endeavors such as projects or other activities that use and extend the ideas from the homework. The teacher can facilitate the learning of the connections of skills instead of constantly teaching those skills that underlie the real world applications.
What a powerful idea...but...not new.
My school system has been using the UCSMP Transition Mathematics program since about 1985 and I taught this program from that time until I left the classroom in 2000. Since coming to the Secondary Mathematics Office, I have been deemed the 'keeper of the flame' for the program. Most recently, I was the lead writer and editor of the curriculum rewriting when the third edition of the textbook was released. (But, I'm slightly off the topic.)
The cornerstone of this program (and all of the prior and subsequent programs in the series) require the students to read ahead. The students read the lesson from their textbook that will be taught in the next class. They read, take notes, and complete some exercises that cover the ideas from the reading. The exercises are nothing more than questions that clarify whether the students know what the main ideas of the lesson are. The students are instructed to use their notes to answer the questions. If they can't answer a question using just their notes, they should go back to the text and enhance their notes. Never are the students required to read for mastery of content. Their prereading is nothing more than reading a movie review or the summary on a book jacket. The students bring some knowledge to class which allows the teacher to form the lesson in a way that does more than regurgitate the reading. If the teacher plans the lesson in such a way that reiterates the text, the majority of students will stop prereading. Well heck, wouldn't you? Think of your college classes that required a textbook that was only used to build the muscles it took to carry it. If the professor spewed back the content verbatim, why take the time to read?
The students come to class with their notes, each having a personal understanding of what was read. The teacher's job is to design a lesson that uses the content in such a way that all students have a more thorough understanding of what they preread. They are also encouraged to enhance and add to their notes during the lesson. The prereading also gives the students a chance to formulate questions to ask the teacher or their classmates. So, isn't this the original version of a flipped classroom? Hasn't prereading always been a technique used to give students a chance to prepare for the content that will be presented in class?
As I mentioned previously, this idea of giving this technique a new name, the flipped classroom, is wonderful if it encourages students and parents to buy into the idea of preparing or taking some responsibility for bringing something to each and every lesson. But, let's not act like this is a bold new frontier. Anytime students are asked to be prepared for class and held responsible for being prepared allows the teacher to take all students farther and achieve more in the little time time available in class.
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