A flipped classroom refers to a learning strategy used by the teachers to break from the monotony of learning in classes. The students watch the lectures online irrespective of their locations sand they are able to interact freely with each other thereby generating views on the lecture. Therefore, the students engage easily through the internet. The use of the online videos has helped the students to understand more due to the delivery of more content and the change of the learning environment. It becomes easy because the students are able to learn at their own pace thereby favoring the slow-learners. In the traditional classrooms the students who are not fast in understanding are left behind by the teachers (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). This demoralizes them as they perceive themselves as foolish because they cannot compete with the pace of their fellow bright students.
The flipped classrooms do not discr4iminate against the students because they are not in the same location. Nonetheless, there are cases where the teachers use flipped classrooms just before a lesson to enhance the student’s understanding regarding the topic to be taught. The tutorials help in refreshing the minds of the students thus the improvement6 of their concentration in class. Moreover, the students watch the videos and interact with each other with the guidance of the teacher. The teacher is able to direct or correct the students whenever they make incorrect views to prevent them from misleading the others. The teachers can also intercept during the lecture to ask the students questions that require their immediate feedback to test their concentration and understanding levels. As a result, the teacher is able to identify the areas that require more time or repetition to help them comprehend (Keengwe, Onchwari, & Oigara, 2014).
It has numerous benefits to the students. One, there is immediate feedback from the teacher and it helps n them in making correction regarding a particular issue. The interactions increase liveliness in class, therefore, the learners never gets bored during the lectures. The interactions increase the student’s participation and this builds up their confidentiality levels as they generate more ideas. When the students engage amongst themselves, there is no limitation or intimidation by the teachers. Therefore, the students open up and share their ideas where they are corrected or approved by the rest. The use of references is crucial because it increases the credibility and reliability of the information provided. The students are also able to refer to the sources in a future date when revising.
Some of the higher learning institutions, for example, Algonquin and Harvard universities have began using the model thereby encouraging the learners to do a research on their own so as to contribute like the others. The flipped classrooms promote healthy competition among the learners hence the improvement in their performance. The diversified research and the use of the tutorials help the students to remember easily. The integration of watching lectures and tutorials encouraged the students to innovate the learning techniques to make the class interesting and lively and at the same time understand more (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). The technique provides the students with more time to think and interpret on what the lecturer and the students have said.
Flipped classrooms have diverse benefits to students which has increased their usage among most people. The flexibility of flip classrooms which allows students to conduct their lessons when they are available giving them an opportunity to raise their queries where necessary. Flexibility of students is essential as they are able to conduct different businesses and still attended their lessons. Collaboration with other students through team work and group formation is also possible through flip classrooms. This works as both social and learning experiences for the students who interact with others from diverse backgrounds. Lecture lessons incorporated in the classes are beneficial to the students as they can be replayed often to ensure the students understand the points of the lecturers. This is also essential during exam preparation as it can act as a reference point especially in cases where the student had been distracted previously during the lessons (Bergmann, & Sams, 2014).
It is however notable that flip classrooms has several cons which has increased critics of this mode of learning. Watching videos can be an opening for most students to watch illegal actions in the internet which affects their morality. Nonetheless, the flipped classrooms have faced several criticism and challenges. One, they are time consuming because the lecturers have to prepare them carefully. The time used in the preparation process could be used in other productive activities that would help the students understand more. The teachers should be very careful when integrating both the in and out of class models to avoid confusing the students. Nevertheless, the loss of the physical contact between the teachers and the students increases their resistance towards the teaching technique and in most cases they lose concentration. He flipped classrooms require digital devises and this may not be readily available in all households. The students from the humble backgrounds have come out to oppose the adoption of the teaching method because it means that they would lose a lot (Keengwe, Onchwari, & Oigara, 2014). Therefore, it became a financial burden to some families because the financial pressure was not within their means.
Some of the locations that the students were disadvantaged them due to poor concentration. The learning environments were not ample to some of the students due to the responsibilities they had. As a result, some for them would not concentrate while the others would not listen to the lectures. The constant interruptions discouraged many students and this was transferred to their results. Such students would perform poorly because of lack of ample learning environments. The accessibility of the internet also interrupts the students because they can access different sites while still listening to the lecturer (Bergmann, & Sams, 2014). Therefore, there is reduced concentration hence the poor grades. The learners spent too much time on the computers and it could result in their addiction. In conclusion, the traditional classrooms should not be scrapped off completely because they are helpful. All the schools need to ingrate both the traditional and the flipped classrooms
References
Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day. Eugene, Or: International Society for Technology in Education.Bottom of Form
In Keengwe, J., In Onchwari, G., & In Oigara, J. N. (2014). Promoting active learning through the flipped classroom model.Bottom of Form
Flip your classroom. (2000).
Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2014). Flipped learning: Gateway to student engagement.
In Scheg, A. G. (2015). Implementation and critical assessment of the flipped classroom experience.
