Flipping the Classroom

     A recent educational innovation is sometimes called
"flipping the classroom."  It has nothing to do with obscene
gestures.  The "it was good enough for grandpa, it is good
enough for me" crowd may consider it to be obscene.

     Schools have been decrepit and counter productive dating
back to at least the time I was confined in them.  I hated school. 
Though I have been out of the school loop for decades, I still
cringe whenever school begins a new session.

     I was well aware of many of the flaws in schools long
before I served out my sentence.  Most of what I have learned I
found outside of school.  Most of what I learned while in school
didn't come from the classroom.  It is a good thing.

     My final two years in engineering school I mostly kicked
the habit of attending classes.  Usually when I did attend, the
most I got was a good nap.  Most of what transpired in the
classroom didn't make a meaningful contribution to my
education.

     Once I made a ridiculous mistake on an exam.  It was the
product of half reading the question.  The instructor wrote a
comment on the exam paper:  "Are you sleeping during the
exams now too?"

     Flipping the classroom caught my attention partly because
it addresses one of my greatest annoyances with the school
system.  I despise lectures.  Before Gutenberg lectures may have
made sense.

     Knowledge was stored in the minds and notes of the
instructors.  The students were stenographers who adsorbed the
knowledge into their own minds and notes.  Invention of the
printing press made lecturing an obsolete waste of time.

     Instructors could, and did, print out their knowledge and
distribute it to those interested  in it.  Still, most of those
instructors kept on lecturing.  Old habits die hard.  One of my
college instructors spent substantial parts of class reading the
text book to the students.

     I got an A in that class.  I also got an A in the next term
of the same subject.  My  former instructor wrote most of the
text book for that class.  I took the final exam without taking the
class.  I guess I could read the text as well as the instructor
could read it to me.  I also read much faster than he talked.

     Half of the flip in "flipping the classroom" is taking
lectures out of the classroom.  The instructor puts the lecture
material on disks, computers, the Internet, or some other place
where the students can access it anytime they want to.  They can
also pause to dwell on points they don't understand the first time
through.

     In a live lecture, if you miss it, it's gone.  If the rest of
the lecture builds on the point the student missed, he might as
well join me in a nap for the rest of the lecture.  The student can
also fast forward through material he has already learned.

     In the traditional classroom the students are treated to a
lecture, often a monologue.  Then the students are assigned
questions and problems to struggle with on their own.  In the
flipped classroom students work on the questions in class where
the teacher works with those who need help.

     As the saying goes "The proof of the pudding is in the
tasting."  How does the flipped classroom taste?

     According to an article from the Mackinac Center,
Clintondale High School had a problem.  An average of over 41
percent of freshmen were failing four basic subjects.  Clintondale
flipped.  The failure rate dropped to 15 percent the first year. 
For Clintondale students the pudding was delicious.

     There is still much more to explore in educational
innovations.  At least the wave of innovation is finally lapping at
the beach of traditional schools.  That wave will grow into a
tsunami.  The masters of the traditional schools must choose. 
They can either ride the wave to the future, or drown.

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Copyright 2013
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284