MANAGING ICT The flipped classroom


The concept and principles of the flipped classroom are


simple and more and more work is being done to research best practice. Andrew Macdonald- Brown explains


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echnology has transformed many things – shopping, watching the television, even looking up telephone numbers. now it is turning schooling on its head. Fifty years ago, the cathode ray tube and international telephone calls


counted as “technology”. now it is watching the telly and ringing people up. Researching topics outside school used to mean hours in the library looking at reference tomes. now it hardly needs saying that the ubiquity of the


web and the quality of information posted for free by experts means young people can get their information anytime. But it makes it possible to look again at the way we teach to engage young people and help them get much better results. a lot has been written about the “flipped” classrooms


invented in the Unitedstates, but the principle is simple, practical and can make a difference, turning class work and homework on its head; sending students off to research at home, and using their valuable classroom time to apply that knowledge, reinforcing and checking what they are learning. ground-breaking research, such as the work of


Professor eric Mazur with his physics classes at harvard, show the great potential of this technique for raising attainment. so students can be sent away with a reading list,


weblinks and video to explore, say, the causes of the second World War at home, and asked to bring back what they have gleaned to debate, discuss and reinforce their ideas in the history lesson itself.


What is so exciting about this concept is that it brings together the skills that young people need: technological


literacy, creativity and collaboration


The essence here is the ability to apply learning, collaborate and ensure students understand what they have learned. What is so exciting about this concept is that it


brings together the skills that young people need: technological literacy, creativity and collaboration. It also gives their schoolwork purpose and promotes students working together – all things that are shown to promote achievement. at The schools network, we have been working


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closely with alan november, a leader in educational technology, and around 70 schools over the past few months. We wanted to look at ways to get students to collaborate and to get them to be active, rather than just passively soaking up what they are told.alan is coming over again this spring to work with another group of english schools. one of alan’s most compelling concepts is getting


students to leave a legacy at school – the idea that students will pour effort into projects which have purpose and which help others in a way they never would if their work is only ever read by their teacher.


SecEd • January 26 2012 alan uses some brilliant examples from his


experience in the United states – the girl who turned a seven-minute homework exercise into a mini-project to explain factors on the web (which has since been watched by 20,000 people). and the school where students have researched and written their own wiki textbook – encouraging boys to carry on updating and correcting their work during the summer, well after the year’s school work was done. There are examples here too, schools report that


setting homework projects via blogs has encouraged their students to go on happily working away at problems and sharing their answers long after traditional paper homework would have been finished. What makes this possible, and makes the idea of a


“flipped” classroom practical, is the availability of fast, reliable internet access, which students can use from home computers, mobile phones, iPods and games consoles. Kids obviously already know how to use this kit and they like using it, so why not get it to work for us in schools?and while we are about it, why not “flip” the way we offer training and professional development to teachers? Technology opens up lectures at great institutions


such as harvard, MIT and the open University to students, as well as specialised resources written for schools and by other students. last month, the new president of the girls’


school association, louise Robinson, predicted the death of the classroom textbook, with paper tomes replaced by smartPhones and e-readers. Technology which only months ago was regarded by many with suspicion or even outright hostility, is now seen as the future. of course, there is always a place for consulting


books.and it would be quite wrong to base children’s education on unquestioningly looking things up on youTube or Wikipedia alone and without guidance; which is why technology brings not only new styles of teaching, but the absolute requirement to view what you find out with a critical eye. That of course is nothing new. Just because something is written in a book, does not necessarily make it so. The difference for teachers is they do not stand in


front of a class telling students facts and imparting information. They demonstrate, experiment, debate and make sure their students have learnt and understood. Which is, after all, what we are all here for.


SecEd


• Andrew Macdonald-Brown is operational director at The Schools Network, the new name for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.


Further information


For more on the work of alan november, visit www.theschoolsnetwork.org.uk/alannovember


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