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Flipped and Collaborative Learning
Flipped Learning
In Back in the early days, I have touched a bit about my concerns of the most common, conventional classroom and what I had gone through during my class (practically during the first three years of my teaching experience):
- If the exercises and discussions (of difficult concepts especially) are the keys for the students to better understand the subject, can we focus these activities in the class?
- Can we do more on problem solving and discussions in the class and let the students study the materials (especially the simple concept) before coming to the class?
This was the idea to the concept of the Flipped Classroom or later appropriately called Flipped Learning.
This pedagogy style was first promoted by the Woodland Park High School chemistry teachers named Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams where, in 2007, they recorded their lectures and posted them online in order to accommodate students who missed their classes. Since then, the community of educators adopting this method is growing and the effectiveness and the impact on the student’s learning are continued to be discussed scientifically.
Flipped learning is often misinterpreted as flipped classroom. While the latter can be interpreted to only ‘physical’ transformation, the former touches the core essence of the student’s experience in learning.
According to flippedlearning.org, the definition is
The flipped learning is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply the concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.
Conventional Lecture-Centred vs. Flipped Learning.
Expectation in Bloom Taxonomy achievement for the conventional Lecture-Centred and the Flipped Learning.
The four pillars of F.L.I.P are
Flexible Environment. It should allow students to learn anywhere and anytime. This also means that the infrastructures, the content itself, the learning management system (on-line system) as well as the classroom must be suitable for both independent learning and collaborative learning.
Learning Culture. By shifting to the learner-centred approach, the lecturer has to ensure that the students are now responsible for their own learning. This is important to be emphasised at the beginning of the class, that the students will not come to the class ‘empty head’, but will do certain learning tasks beforehand. In the class, they will be expected to actively collaborate in learning with their peers. Less passive listening like they used to have in the lecture-centred class.
Intentional Content. The lecturer must design the contents for students, not only to develop the conceptual understanding, but also to keep them engage with the subjects. It must be ensured that the students ‘happily’ study the materials outside the class and they actively engage with collaborative problem solving activities in the class.
Professional Educator. The lecturer must ensure that the flipped learning approach must improve the student’s learning in a much more effective way compared to the traditional lecturer-centred approach. The lecturer must involve in a community where the pros and cons of the flipped learning method can be shared and discussed with colleagues in and outside the faculty and collaborates each other for continuous quality improvement.
My Flipped and Collaborative Class
I started to develop the interactive contents (animation whiteboard videos, HTML animation and iBooks – now ePub Books) in 2015 for subject Mechanical Vibration (BMCM 3743). Since then with all the limitations, I dared myself to begin implementing the flipped learning method to my class.
The flipped learning together with the collaborative learning approach were conveniently applied when the CLEAR (Collaborative Learning Room) in our faculty was ready to be used. Intended for the student-centred activity room, the room is much more spacious than the usual classrooms we have in the faculty. It is equipped with eight glass boards around the walls, so that each group can scribble on the board during their problem solving and discussion activities.
Our CLEAR room, firstly used in 2016. No proper tables yet at that time.
In Semester I, session 2016/2017, I continued to apply the flipped learning+collaborative learning approach for my taught subjects: Mechanical Vibration (BMCM 3743) and Numerical Method (BEKG 2452). I took the initiative to use the CLEAR room for the first time and I was the only lecturer who used the room for the collaborative learning in that semester.
I had some interactive, digital contents for the Mechanical Vibration subject, but for Numerical Method, because this was the first time the subject assigned to me, I had to rely only on the lecture notes and applied only collaborative learning in the class.
On the first day of the class, I explained the concept behind the flipped learning approach to the students as mostly all the students are not aware of this pedagogy before. They may know the terminology of ‘student-centred learning’ and some lecturers adopt this method in the class as well, but the flipped learning is quite new to them, even to lecturers.
For convenience, I list down here the steps:
1. I gave the students instruction on what materials to be read before coming to the class. Usually with a video to watch and a simple quiz to be answered.
2. In the class, I will explain the context on why the topic is studied and where the application would be (although it is already in the LMS, but it is good to recap). This is important to be emphasised to give the students a contextual situation. Learning can take place when the knowledge is obtained based on their observations or their experience (contextual learning). The defined context can also excite their motivation throughout the activities in the class.
3. After discussing the context, I will explain the intro for the theory, usually for about 10-15 minutes or so, and the remaining activities in the class are the discussion in groups to solve the problems I have posted online.
I design the activities so that it starts with low and ends up with high critical thinking process to solve the problem. At the end of the activities, the students should master the fundamental concept of the corresponding topic and they should be able to link the theory and to solve the similar problems in engineering practice.
4. The students must use the glass board (or whiteboard) to write down the answer of the problem. Meanwhile, I move from one group to another to observe their progress. I engage with them by discussing together about what they have in their board. With a working board for each group, everyone can refer to the same ‘screen’ during the discussion.
5. If the answer is correct, I will ask a question to test their genuine understanding. Sometimes I usually pick up a random student from the group to answer, but I allow their peers to help. For example: ‘Why do you take the deflection of spring-1 and not spring-2 in the formula?’
6. If the answer is wrong, I will also post a question instead of directly tell them that their answer is wrong. For example: ‘Could you explain why did you assume that the displacement of the mass and the attached spring is different?’.
I like this inquiry process because this is where I interact directly with the student’s mind. With this process as well, I will ensure that the students obtain the final answer by mastering the conceptual knowledge and not by memorising or following the same procedures as in the similar example problems.
In this way, we also know which concept is still not clear to them. We can use this to re-evaluate our digital content or instruction.
Discussion with my students.