To Flip or Not to Flip....

Book by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams

In 2011, I embarked on a journey that altered my teaching life forever.  While finishing my Masters degree in Educational Technology at Michigan State University, I was hungry for a way to revolutionize what I currently did in my classroom with my students and stumbled on something called Flipped Classroom Learning.  I did an immense amount of thinking and exploring

(project found here) and developed a plan to implement this new method of teaching into my geometry classes.  In short, I was frustrated with the amount of class time taken up by lecturing and note taking and craved more time to "do math" with my students or engage students in doing math. Flipping would do just that for me!

Four years later, I remain completely satisfied with my decision to flip.  Sure, my teaching and what my classroom looks like have morphed, but the basic tenets of "The Flip" remain.  Students view my instructional videos on MathWithMcCarthy (gotta change this now that I'm newly married) and we have the entire hour for skill practice where students can get help from either me or their peers and to go deeper into the mathematical concepts that we were studying.  For the first time in four years, however, I'm not teaching geometry and was left to ponder whether or not I would flip my freshmen Algebra 1 class this coming school year.

So much time has passed since I first decided to do this and The Flipped Classroom has gained quite a following.  An extensive network has been formed on social media and on the Flipped Learning Network.  Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (authors of Flip your classroom: Reach Every student in Every class Every day) have traveled all across the country giving talks and holding seminars.  FlipCon2015, a Flipped Classroom conference in its fourth year, was recently held fairly close to where I live in East Lansing, Michigan. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend due to other work obligations.   

While trying to decide whether or not I would flip with my Algebra 1 class, I did some casual Googling to see what current sentiments were regarding the Flipped Classroom and I came across a blog post entitled: The Flip: End of a Love Affair. Admittedly, this post rattled me a bit.  I consider myself to be a very thoughtful teacher and wholeheartedly believed that what I had been doing for the past four years created a much better learning environment for students than pre-flip experiences. I tried to wrap my brain around how one could "fall out of love" with this way of teaching and learning.  I read and re-read her post and compared our experiences and concluded three things:

• Flipping is not a panacea! Just like any other instructional strategy, it has its affordances and its constraints.  The videos are primarily still just lectures and we know from research that lectures are only so effective. However, there is something to be said for having your classroom instruction available to students at the push of a button. Students can re-watch videos when reviewing for tests and exams. Tutors and parents can view the videos to assist their students and know exactly what they're learning. Absent students don't have to miss out on every aspect of the day's instruction. I could go on!
  
• Use of class time is KEY! This pedagogical method allows for so many other important educational experiences to be had.  Contrary to relatively popular belief, not everyone who flips is merely using class time to do bookwork or worksheets.  Students can be incredibly engaged and deepen their understanding when class time is structured to provide for transformative experiences.  Whether you're creating videos that your students consume or the classroom is more "student-centered", students are still accessing knowledge that someone else "owns" or "created".  Its what they DO with this knowledge that makes all the difference.
  
• Context, Context, Context! Consider the following scenario: You're sitting on the train across from a man and three children.  The eldest boy is climbing all over the chairs and running up and down the aisles.  You're certain he is going to hurt himself.  The middle child is constantly hitting and pinching the baby causing her to cry.  The father, meanwhile, seems disengaged from his children and enthralled with his smartphone rarely looking up to correct and settle them.  After a bit of time, you can't take another second of the behavior so you pipe up chastising the father for his lack of attentiveness.  The father looks up with tired eyes and dryly explains that the children's mother, his wife, was lost the previous night in a car accident and that they were traveling to be with family. Feel any differently about your approach with this poor man?  Context is everything!  The implementation of the Flipped Classroom approach can look very different for many different teachers and success can also be measured in a variety of ways...it all depends on the teacher's context.  I would argue that the Flipped Classroom did not work for Shelly Wright because she was teaching in a different context with different goals.  It was never the answer for her, but served as a stepping stone to the "answer".  On the contrary, the Flip completely served its purpose for me. Problem-based Learning and Inquiry Learning were never the central themes of my instruction and I was never intending for flipping to make them such. 

One of the best things about blogging is the community nature of the experience.  Almost as interesting as most blog posts is the comments.  While perusing the comments of this particular post I found one by my friend, Dan Spencer.  Dan, a fellow prominent Michigan flipper/teacher, chimed in stating "...I’ve seen first hand how “flipping done right” can make a positive impact on both me as a teacher and my students. While I started with what I call the “traditional flip” of replacing classroom lecture with at-home video, it also allowed me to move towards a much richer learning environment. Specifically, it allowed me to move towards a student-centered learning environment. Instead of saying "this flipped love affair was a failure", perhaps it should be seen as a success leading to a more student-centered classroom." 

The post caught Jonathan Bergmann's attention as well.  He commented saying "...I enjoyed your post. This may sound odd from the guy who wrote the book on the flipped class. One of my main concerns with how the term “flipped class” is being explained in the press is just what you said. Video as homework and class time for work time. That is not what I believe about education. I see the flipped class as a way to get TO deeper learning–to get to a learner centered classroom. You might want to see my blog post where I explained how the flip leads teachers to real 21st century learning. I don’t see the flip as the answer, but rather, as a way to get to the answer."

After considering all that has been said and knowing my school, department, curriculum, and student population, I can go into the 2015-2016 school year confident about my decision to flip.  Just as I started four years ago, I plan to continue to demonstrate how technology can be coupled with effective pedagogy, and rich content to enable students to demonstrate and provide evidence of a deeper understanding in mathematics and hopefully redefine for students what it means to "do math".