Photo Illustration by Bryce Owen ’17 | Mr. Philip Birgenheir uses a flipped classroom style of learning where students do homework during class and learn outside of class.

Flipped classroom allows for self pace learning

By Edwin Perez ’18
THE ROUNDUP

The flipped classroom is an innovative way of teaching that allows for students to learn at their own pace.

A flipped classroom is a way that some teachers are beginning to adapt to that helps students watch videos of notes and lectures during the night and do homework in class where they can ask questions.

In a math class the teacher will give the video as homework and the student takes notes of the things that are important.

The day after the teacher goes over the lesson for a then checks if anyone has a question. Otherwise time is spent doing problems to make sure the student grasps the idea. While doing the problem the student can then ask any specific question of how to solve that question.

Doing homework at home at times can be hard because you may have grasped the lesson in class but did not quite get how to do it for a specific problem. A flipped classroom allows for students to do math questions in class so if they need to ask a question the teacher is there.

It has been a way of teaching that has allowed for many students to be able to learn the material at their own set pace, not leaving those behind who need to take more time to learn about a specific lesson.

The argument against this could be that the students prefer learning about the lesson from the teacher during the period then doing work at home because it is easier for them to learn the lesson while someone teaches it in person.

When time comes to test, the student who may be slower at learning the material might not be able to do as well because they had to learn it quickly in class and could not understand it.

Mr. Patrick Kolb is a geometry teacher and teaches in the style of flipped classroom.

“Flipped classroom has seen class average grades as a whole go up,” Mr Kolb said.

Jarrett Davis ’18 was in Mr. Kolb geometry class last year and spent the year going through the flipped classroom.

“This type of teaching makes it easier for me to learn and it showed with my grade,“ Davis said.

Flipped classrooms put heavier burden on students, cause more confusion

By Josh Spano ’18
THE ROUNDUP

If it isn’t broken then don’t fix it, and that is exactly why we should go back to a normal classroom setting.

In a USA Today article by Emily Atteberry, she says, “during a study between flipped and non-flipped classrooms that in the majority of the measured categories, there was no demonstrable difference between the two class types.”

If there is no considerable difference between the two then we should go back to the old way of teaching.

A flipped classroom gives students time to do homework and projects in class with the teacher’s assistance, and they spend time at home watching videos or reading lesson material.

This is a style that is used in some classrooms across campus, math especially.

While doing homework in class is nice, many students still haphazardly watch the YouTube videos and do not take the time to understand the concept.

In regular classrooms teachers have more time to spend on the topic and are also able to answer many more questions from their students.

I pay more attention when someone is talking to me in person, and this is the same with many students.

When watching videos it is harder to study because there are many more distractions while watching videos than listening to a teacher explain the subject in person.

This is turn causes many students to be confused and ask their teacher in class to re-explain the concept from the videos.

Because of a flipped classroom being in a set schedule, it is hard to spend more than one day on a difficult subject. So when the test comes back around many students get low scores because they feel like they were rushed and did not have enough time to understand the subject.

This may even make some students feel like they are more of their own teacher even

though they have an actual teacher at their disposal.

This can also discourage students and maybe even cause some students to have resentment toward a flipped classroom.  

There is a solution: Go back to the old way teaching math.

After all, it has been working for hundreds of years and provides flexibility for both the students and the teacher.

Students want to learn and the best way of learning is to go back to the old way and have teachers teach in class and to do homework at home.