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.