The Flipped Classroom

This year I've been experimenting with "the flipped classroom" pedagogy in my first year seminar, AF101x, "Understanding Power and Conflict Through Film: Making Sense of the Politics of the 21st Century".   You can read about how I've been applying the technique to my course here.

I also gave a presentation entitled "Flipping Your Social Science Classroom: Some Thoughts" recently at a workshop called, Balancing the Blend: The Active Learning Classroom at WLU on 16 April 2013.  Here are the slides and script of that presentation.

What is "the flipped classroom"? Here's a short summary:

Think of the math class you took in high school.  The traditional model is that the teacher introduces a new math concept in class.  Then, students go home to do homework, solving questions relating to the new math concept. They come back to class the next day and the instructor takes up the answers with the entire class. In the flipped classroom, students would go home and watch a video or read a reading on the concept.  They then complete on online quiz on the concept before class.  The instructor reviews the answers from the quiz and in class gives a short lecture on any topics that the students seemed to have trouble with as indicated by their quiz answers.  Then the rest of the class would be in-class homework/application exercises in small groups and large group discussion on the math concept.  Near the end of the class, the instructor assesses how well the students completed the in-class exercises, and ends the class with a short lecture addressing any final weaknesses in comprehension and application.  That’s basically it!

Virtual Researcher on Call Program

I am now a participating faculty member in the virtual researcher on call program. According to their website:

Inspire the next generation of champions in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) by bringing experts in these fields into the classroom [high school and elementary schools) with VROC video conferencing.

How does it work?

STEM experts can be brought into the classrooms for…

• 5-10 minute spontaneous video conferencing sessions
• Up to hour long presentations and Q&A sessions
• Semester-long mentorship style sessions