A Story of Flipped Learning (Part 1) – somewhere near the beginning

It all started with dedicated, passionate, skilled teachers who knew that the best use of their time with students was NOT to lecture at them from the front of the classroom.

They believed that 2 things were critical:

• Free up and change the nature of class time by decreasing the amount of time they “lectured to the whole class” and instead increasing the hours they worked with students one on one, assisting them with higher order learning challenges and personalising their learning

• Find an alternative to the lecture for delivering critical content to their students. Delivering content was still very important in the teaching/learning process. They knew they were on a winner, because this is where tech tools had developed sufficiently to meet this need (more later).

Why has the Flipped Learning movement placed so much importance on the need to change the nature of class time? Put simply, because it works!

Increased one on one tuition and personalised learning strengthens the teacher-student relationship. Teachers get to know their students better cognitively, and perhaps even more importantly, affectively. As Jon Bergmann (one of the pioneers of Flipped Learning) often says: “Kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care”. Relationships is the top reason why Flipped Learning works. Students engage when you know them and when you care.

Even though Flipped Learning has moved on from these simple and elegant ideas to a very sophisticated model of teaching and learning (Flipped Learning 3.0), as it was then and still is now, the one big question in the Flipped Learning paradigm is: “What is the best use of face to face class time?”

We know it is not “yakking” at the front of the class day in, day out. It is something else altogether and it is powerful. For some teachers it is 50% more experiments, 50% more project based learning, 50% more active learning, or 50% more inquiry learning. 

What would it be for you?

To find out more about Flipped Learning and its possibilities meet Jon Bergmann in person @ FlipCon Australia at the Inaburra School in Sydney on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October 2017. 

If you are just starting out on the Flipped Learning road the conference has much to offer. Here is a snapshot of just a few of the sessions on offer:

For more information and to register for FlipCon Australia go to: www.ereg.me/flipconaus