Flip Teaching: An Effective Medium of Teaching

What is flip teaching?

Flipped classrooms, or flip teaching, refers to students learning through watching videos — usually at home. Classroom time is then focused on doing homework and hands-on work related to the topic being learned. Teachers record the lesson content on video; children learn through the videos at home and practice in school.

This concept of teaching is not new in colleges, especially for foreign language courses — but for elementary through high schools, it is a very new methodology. A handful of schools in the USA have adopted this and are seeing promising results.

How is it different from Khan Academy?

Khan Academy has become a household name in education. Flip teaching is similar to the Khan Academy — the only difference being that the teachers from the child's own school make the videos, then help the kids practice and learn concepts in the classroom.

Why could flip teaching help parents?

Many parents are not equipped to teach kids — either because of lack of expertise or lack of time. Flip teaching could be the answer in such cases. In schools where this methodology has been adopted, parents have reported learning alongside the kids and discovering new subjects together.

Often, we find kids struggling with homework — and with little or no help at hand, they often give up. This becomes a vicious cycle: they have not been able to learn well at school, have not completed the homework, hence the cycle continues, and in the end it results in low grades. Flip teaching breaks that cycle by moving the hardest part of learning — the practice — into the classroom, where help is available.

Is there evidence it works?

Clintondale community schools in Michigan adopted the flip teaching method, and their standardized test scores improved. Principal Greg Green at Clintondale High took a big risk by flipping his classrooms (as test scores were dropping and disciplinary rates were on the rise) — and it paid off. In just one year, the failure rate at their 9th-grade center dropped by 33% in English, 31% in Math, 22% in Science, and 19% in Social Studies — plus the discipline rate dropped by 66%!

This concept is sure to catch on — just a matter of time. Schools that adopt this concept early on will have motivated and better learners. Cornell's Center for Teaching Excellence is a good resource for schools and teachers looking to learn how to adopt flip teaching.