Flipping the Classroom

This blog refers to Understanding the Flipped Classroom – Part 1 and Part 2.

When the concept of Flipping the Classroom was first introduced in our class, I asked myself “isn’t this how I’ve been taught all my life?” – What’s so great and new about this? I’ve always had homework to do prior to the next class, usually in the form of reading assignments. So when I read the articles “Understanding the Flipped Classroom – Part 1 and Part 2” by Pamela Kachka, I was relieved to see that I wasn’t too far off in my skepticism. But, although it is not a new concept in itself, it brings new meaning to the idea – ideally flipping the lecture to be the homework, and the traditional homework to be brought to the classroom (at times in a lab environment).

And, in today’s technological world, rather than the traditional reading assignment, we can access youtube videos from home to help present the lectured content in an interesting and engaging manner versus reading black on white words. Then back in the classroom, critical thinking and problem solving tools can now be used to solve any misunderstandings or to search for deeper meaning on the topic and to apply the new knowledge. To support this idea of the youtube video, I watched this clip on The Flipped Classroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQWvc6qhTds

This would definitely be a useful teaching method, especially when teaching classes that benefit from hands-on practice as it would free up time for the teacher and student to interact on a one on one basis, and learn by doing rather than by just listening and hopefully absorbing.

My struggle with it would be that a lot of the classes I teach are one day or less in length. Can you suggest ways I could incorporate the Flipped Classroom with such a short duration of class time and length?