Back to the future: 5 things we might have forgotten about ‘flipping the classroom’

The last few years’ disruptions has meant that while we’ve become adept at adapting, our return to campus teaching offers the opportunity to rebuild best practice, and revisit some of the strategies that enable this. The term ‘flipped classroom’ gained popularity alongside the advent of digital learning tools and platforms, but has, in one form or another, been around for as long as classrooms themselves. There’s ample research pointing to the benefits of having learners preview key concepts ahead of the class, meaning the face-to-face session can be used more for active learning (Lage, 2000; Karanicolas & Snelling, 2010; McLaughlin et al., 2014). However, be explicit in how you present flipped learning to your students – set expectations early in the semester about how they will scaffold in-class activities, assessments and learning outcomes. So, what might we have forgotten about flipped learning?

  1. It buys time back for in-class engagement - The most important feature of flipping the classroom is that it opens up time in the lesson to double-down on important topics, encourage active learning and build the social capital of your learners.
  2. It supports accessibility - From esteemed journal articles to TikTok clips, you now have access to an infinite number of resources and formats that will help students of all backgrounds and dispositions to grasp even the most complex ideas…before you’ve even run the lesson.
  3. It helps the focus and currency of your content - Those topics or concepts that traditionally challenge learners can be really homed in on by providing preparatory activities. In planning these, by keeping abreast of new research or insights the currency of your content is improved. This makes for a dynamic and relevant learning experience.
  4. It engages students as co-curators of their learning - It doesn’t always have to be about you finding things – a great flipped class activity can be getting students to seek out or curate resources themselves.
  5. It scaffolds assessment and opens opportunities for feedback - Choosing resources or pre-class activities that scaffold or simulate assessment is a good way to get students actively engaging with the work, and provide formative feedback on their knowledge.