“Flipped” Classrooms as a teaching strategy

This five-week course is developed with the intent to encourage teachers to reverse the traditional order of instruction where lectures precede student activities. Instead students are given homework (self-study) as preparation for class, and classroom time is then spent on active learning under the guidance of the teacher. The preparations may consist of video presentations, reading assignments and quizzes for assessment of independent learning. Following preparation by the students themselves, time in class is used for proving and reflecting on the preparatory learning and to clarify difficulties and misconceptions. This is in line with the Ministry of Educations’ policy to adapt teaching strategies that encourage independent and student led learning.

This course is based on creative nontraditional techniques that allow for a fun virtual learning environment for students, as well as integrating modules so that a student does not move to more content before understanding the first one. This kind of interactive learning allows students to feedback at all stages as well as provide students with worksheets and self- correction (self-evaluation).

The course will provide teachers with the opportunity to clarify any misconceptions and gaps in student understanding from the preparation, and to get deeper into the studied subject, ultimately ensuring that students do not only memorize facts, but also meet higher-level educational objectives. It will also facilitate peer instruction with collaborative learning as students engage in discussions around effective questions posed by the teacher and other students. After completing this course, participants should be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding the flipped classroom strategy.
• Share best educational practices with their departments at school.
• Design a well-structured lesson plan that reflects this strategy.
• Analyse and evaluate the strengths and areas of improvement of a given lesson plan, as well as give feedback on how to improve the lesson plan.
• Apply this strategy in their classroom teaching practices to enhance independent, student-led, as well as collaborative learning.
• Assess learning – AFL (Formative)