I have been conducting the Flipped Classroom for a total of 4 months right now and it is has been relatively successful. I have been fortunate enough to establish a strong relationship with many of students, one of which has been brave enough to send me her honest feelings concerning changes she would like to see in how the class is won. One of her comments has really stuck with me. She said, "It is like comparing listening to a recording of a concert and being at the actual show--it's the same music, but totally different
environment and SO much more memorable when you are actually there in front of the performer." She was referring to the fact that she was having a hard time remembering information from the podcasts because the way I teach helped make the information easier to recall later. So this got me thinking: has my class lost its focus? In other words, have I been doing such a great job of "putting on a show" that I was drawing attention away from the learning?
Randomly, one of my Twitterverse friends, Justin Tarte (definitely read his blog!), posted the following: "If attendance was not mandatory, would students come 2 your class?" And then totally unconnected to this, a former colleague, Brad Campbell, posted this cartoon.
So the question really becomes why do students really come to school? If given the choice, would they just stay home? With all of the resources that are available on the Internet (podcasts on youtube/khanacademy, wikipedia, open source textbooks), I wonder how many students would come to school driven simply by their intrinsic motivation to learn.
Thoughts?
environment and SO much more memorable when you are actually there in front of the performer." She was referring to the fact that she was having a hard time remembering information from the podcasts because the way I teach helped make the information easier to recall later. So this got me thinking: has my class lost its focus? In other words, have I been doing such a great job of "putting on a show" that I was drawing attention away from the learning?
Randomly, one of my Twitterverse friends, Justin Tarte (definitely read his blog!), posted the following: "If attendance was not mandatory, would students come 2 your class?" And then totally unconnected to this, a former colleague, Brad Campbell, posted this cartoon.
So the question really becomes why do students really come to school? If given the choice, would they just stay home? With all of the resources that are available on the Internet (podcasts on youtube/khanacademy, wikipedia, open source textbooks), I wonder how many students would come to school driven simply by their intrinsic motivation to learn.
Thoughts?
I also run a flipped class (all year...7 units done) and I heard the same thing from students at the beginning. I like the concert analogy your student had.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've done is I've made the face-to-face time the memorable time...the "backstage pass," if you will. The content is meaningless until we put it into context...make that the memorable time.
I have been reading and watching a variety of pieces on the Flipped Classroom approach to incorporate/enhance what I am doing. I appreciate your thoughts and openness here. I teach 8-9 year olds and they don't really have a choice whether they come to school but, like yourself, I ask for their feedback. Their responses shape how I approach things and often teaches me how I need to teach them. I ask them weekly how they feel about school or specifically how they feel during a learning experience. However, tomorrow I'll ask them, other than the obvious, "Why do you come to school?"
ReplyDeleteThanks for making me rethink.