The Flipped Learning Model ... The Emerging Picture

It was only a couple of months or so ago I wrote about my department's move to the Flipped Learning Model (Flipped Learning Model = FLM).  If you recall, I discussed how we had made the move almost 'out of the blue'.  To be fair, the decision was borne out of the sum of various departmental conversations and developments.  However, our subsequent discussions were numerous, detailed and we didn't take any part of this highly disruptive pedagogical and learning development lightly.  I even got one member of my team reading a book on the topic.  Yes, reading a book!


So, we're a few months into this shift and, to use a meeting protocol I haven't used enough, "Here's What.  So What?  Now What?"

Here's What

At this stage, I'll limit this post to my experiences, rather than comment on the whole department.  That'll come later, I'm sure. Unsurprisingly at this stage, I am experiencing a range of successes and challenges.  Under this heading, let me focus on the challenges; the successes will come out later in this entry.


The challenges are mine, not the kids.  I'm still new to this FLM.  Up to press, I have had 17 years of experience with a largely different Teaching and Learning model (OK, some areas were flipped in nature, but not necessarily as a conscientious or continuous model).


For example, the challenges with my shared A-Level Computing class are largely about 'letting go' of what was previously mine and handing it over to the students.  In this respect, I used to really love letting kids know what I knew!  Arrogant, huh?  It was great standing up at the front and introduce a new topic or concept that I knew they'd never heard of, such as Finite State Machines, Boolean Algebra, Gray Code, etc.  Now, all I get to do is answer questions about stuff they didn't quite get at home!  I've been reduced to a Q&A consultant!


The same applies to my Year 10 and Year 11 GCSE Business Studies classes.  My Year 10s are all over this new way of learning and I'm stood there, walking around the classroom, fielding questions from the kids.  My Year 11s are much more on-board now, almost as if having a 'normal' Year 10 had set them in their ways.  Q&A.

So What?

I guess the So What? is Get Over It!
To a very large extent, all this Q&A is exactly what is supposed to happen.  After all, the students have access to reading material and lots of other learning resources on our VLE, such as videos, URLs, PDFs, activities, etc.  And why did we provide all this material?  So they could get a grasp of the basics.  We had planned to shift the lower part of Bloom's Taxonomy out of the classroom and into the student's bedroom, office, coffee shop, Departures' Lounge, etc, wherever ... and we did exactly that.


We knew (or at least hoped) that students would come in with questions (mostly) about what they didn't quite grasp.  That was supposed to be our opportunity to help students move through the taxonomy much quicker and with greater security.


I guess it has taken us by surprise at what all this planning looks like when it's actually taking place!


And it actually taking place.  It is frightening, daunting, exciting, liberating.  Lots of things.

Now What?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  We've been at it since September.  We're not ready to publish books or stand up at TED ... yet.


However, we are already reflecting, with some degree of sophistication, on our new Modus Operandi.  I want no-one in my team to believe they have 'made it' and are now expert 'flipped practitioners'.  And I don't think any of us really do believe that.  Yes, we get very excited when we share our successes (I'll tell you about one or two in the next post).  But I do believe that one of my team's strengths (of which there are many) is that we are good at talking about learning.  We enjoy it.


We still have some staff approach us to find out how it's all going.  A few have also taken various steps in adopting versions of flipped learning, not necessarily as gung-ho as us maybe, but these staff are also serious about improving - themselves and, most importantly, the learning ability and outcomes of their students.

Finally...

I apologise if this post doesn't quite provide all the filling in this adventure.  There is so much to say about what we are doing, I could write a short book already.


What I will say is that it is not all about students 'reading ahead' and 'coming in with questions'.  There's a lot more to what we are doing and we're still learning how best to achieve this.


The next few posts are likely to focus on the Q&A that I have with the class; the formal and informal assessment of lower-order learning; the activities students now engage in; and how Alan November's Who Owns The Learning has influenced me and my department in a way that I couldn't have imagined a few months ago.  Although Alan November may not have been a direct influence for our FLM, his experiences and beliefs have found a place in my department.  And that's exciting, too.

Moving to the Flipped Learning Model

Good Lord!  Where did the time go?  Apologies.

So, where we?  Yes, I was at the The Antwerp International School in Belgium.  Was.  My family and I had a year there.  I held the title IT Director.  We have fond memories of living in and travelling around Belgium.

We are now at the British School Muscat in Oman.  I am the Head of Computing and Business Studies and we have very exciting times ahead!  As of September 2014, Computing is the new ICT.  Sadly, ICT was reduced by many to 'learn MS Office'.  It was always much more than that but, sadly, its reputation and lack of clarity in what it really meant to many ICT teachers meant it was (rightly) replaced with Computing.  Many might say that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary at the time who initiated this change, is not their most popular MP but I think he got this right.

Here in Muscat, I am lucky enough to work with a great team.  There are 4 of us in the department and, between us, we cover KS3 Computing, GCSE Business and GCSE Computer Science and A-Level Business Studies, Economics and Computing.  We have ourselves a bit of a head-start with KS3 Computing last year by developing a pilot Computing curriculum.  As a 1.0 POS, it's very good.  Developed by a colleague in my department, it provides a great foundation for 'review and refine' now, rather than wholesale development.

But this is not the point of this blog entry.  This is...

At exam-level, we are embarking on developing a Flipped Learning Model for our students.  At this stage, there are 2 key comments to make:

1. The decision to go 'all in' with the Flipped Learning Model happened in the last 6 weeks of the last school year.  As we approach the start of the new school year, we have been aggressively planning, reading, meeting, exchanging ideas and resourcing.  We have not embarked on this disruptive pedagogical shift lightly!
2. The second comment is that the whole school knows about this shift in learning emphasis!  We are now 'front-and-centre' - all eyes are on us!

Why the shift?

The shift to a Flipped Learning Model was borne out of the need to:

1. Provide students with the support that they really need.  Note: Really need
2. Shift the responsibility of the learning squarely onto the shoulders of our students (and being sure they are learning!)

Re: Point 1 above (Providing Student Support)

Bloom's Taxonomy.  For many of us, (and this is a very simplified example) we deliver a lesson and then we ask our students to 'analyse this text for homework'.  Often, analysis, evaluation, synthesis or synopsis are not always well-understood or practiced by students.  So why ask them to do this work without (y)our full support?  After all, this type of homework might simply reinforce bad habits and/or an unclear understanding will simply remain unclear.  Our reason and emphasis here is to move the lower order work out of the classroom.  In effect, this becomes the 'homework' and it happens before the start of the unit or new learning.  The expectation is that we, as professionals, are then able to support students to move into higher levels of thinking and understanding with our full supported.  We can provide in-class Quality Assurance, Formative Feedback and help students develop elements that are higher up the food chain in the Bloom's Taxonomy.

For us, and from what I have read, this is highly disruptive to one's own pedagogical comfort zone!  Very.

Technology

Technology plays a big part to support this learning.  Ubiquitous access to resources (video, audio, websites, presentations, etc) are available to students to develop lower order understanding in their own time, in an environment that suits them, using tools that suit them.  These resources are also available in class, of course, but the emphasis is for students to take more charge of their own learning.

Which leads us onto point 2.

Re: Point 2 above (Shifting Responsibility)

At British School Muscat, as with many schools around the world, we aim to provide students with Learning To Learn skills, or whichever variation of this characteristic you wish to apply.  In my department, we support the school's endeavour by developing what we call the Autonomous Learner (or Learner Autonomy).  This is not a cop-out approach to our new mode of helping students in their learning: it is a very serious endeavour, indeed.  In many respects, this is the least new of our efforts.  After all, I am sure many of us try to develop autonomy on one level or another.

The fact is, with our new approach, students will be given opportunities to explore their learning, in and out of the classroom, in ways that may be very new to them.  i.e. "It is your role to develop a basic understanding of Topic X with little input from me ... in the first place, at least."

Knowing They Know

With regard to the lower order learning, a key area for development for us, as a team, is Assessment.

1. How do we know they know?
2. How do they know they know?

It seems we may develop Knowledge Tests in this respect.  In the first instance, this could be little more than asking for various definitions of key terms.  These assessments serve dual roles: a meaningful assessment that demonstrates an understanding of the key language and concepts; and,  especially in the early phase of this development, behaviour management ... if you haven't done the work outside class, you will have no hiding place in this assessment.  Sanctions apply.

To conclude..

I do not want to be (too) premature about these changes to our pedagogy.  As a team, we know we will need to make adjustments to our own current level of understanding of Flipped Learning.  We know students will need time to adjust and we will support them during this transition.  We also know that by simply saying "We're are flipping our classrooms" won't improve learning.  Our work will still be hard, but will be very different (my planning already looks vastly different!).

It will be very interesting to see if what we have discussed and planned is a close correlation to what happens in the classroom ... or will our students have a much greater impact on how it develops!?


Recommended Reading:

1. Flip Your Classroom by Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams
2. Who Owns The Learning by Alan November
3. Flipping 2.0 by The Bretzman Group
4. Why School? by Will Richardson