Title: Flipped classrooms in K12 education
Author Name: Matthew
1. Introduction
Born out of a necessity to integrate technology within learning design while also maximizing instructional time, the Flipped Classroom model has seen increased usage in recent years. In particular, K-12 classrooms all over the United States have had to rapidly adapt to this new modality as school districts have adopted all-digital or hybrid models of instruction while trying to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Flipped learning is defined as a method of instructional design where teachers record lectures and presentations of teacher-centered learning material and give it to students to view and take notes on for homework, then when these students come back into the classroom the teacher serves as a facilitator to guide students through more complex hands on tasks that give them an opportunity to have the learning become student-centered (Finkel, 2012).
Cynthia J. Brame, Assistant Director for Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching, notes that the flipped classroom model allows students to have first exposure to new material and perform the lighter cognitive tasks of Bloom’s Taxonomy on their own at home. When they return to class, they are able to focus on the higher levels of cognitive function that relate to the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (those of analysis, evaluation, creation, etc.) (Brame, 2013). Many teachers had been successfully utilizing the flipped classroom model to get their students to move further along Bloom’s Taxonomy prior to the widespread shutdown of schools in March of 2020, but the quarantine and other safety measures related to the coronavirus pandemic have necessitated teachers to quickly implement instructional design practices that cater to new modalities of all-digital or hybrid learning (Ferlazzo, 2020). In a study conducted in September of 2020, Tao Teng et al surveyed a group of students using an instrument known as the Learning under Covid-19 Questionnaire. The results showed that although students were generally dissatisfied with online learning, the “combined model of online teaching with the flipped learning improved students’ learning, attention, and evaluation of courses” (Teng, 2020).
Although both students and teachers generally prefer being able to have face-to-face instructional time, the continued impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education has made it difficult to ensure that all students are receiving instruction at the same pace and rigor. In some districts, many students have opted for all-digital learning when given the option while others have elected to stay in the traditional brick and mortar setting. In either modality, the flipped classroom model can be an effective bridge to ensuring that those who are outside of the classroom are obtaining the same fair and equitable access to material while also understanding the material in a way that promotes mastery and meets desired outcomes.
2. Overview of the Case
In July of 2020, the Cherokee County School District in Cherokee County Georgia released their back-to-school plan for the 2020-2021 school year. This plan involved giving students the opportunity to elect either all-digital or all in-person schooling options as a result of the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Within the first two weeks of the school year, several schools had to shut down and adopt an all-digital model for all students as a result of increasing positive cases and widespread quarantine. After another two weeks of the all-digital model, these schools that had shut down shifted to a hybrid model for the next 6 weeks that had students split into two groups based on last name. These students would only attend school face-to-face two days a week and then learn digitally the other three days in order to still allow for in-class instructional time but also mitigate the spread of the virus. Under this continually shifting modality, Advanced Composition teachers at Etowah High School (one of Cherokee County’s three high schools that had been forced to shut down) needed to implement flexible design practices in developing instructional models that could be used by senior students both inside and outside of the classroom to deliver new content and promote mastery of learning targets. The model that was chosen was that of the flipped classroom, which would allow for new content and conceptual introductions to be handled outside of class where the in-class work could be devoted to a sort of “writer’s workshop” that allowed for peer and teacher review of content created as well as revision and editing. In addition to the typical barriers that would need to be overcome by teachers who had never successfully utilized this model before, teachers were also delivering a brand new curriculum designed for the 2020-2021 school year. The first unit of study involved a culminating task where students would be using technological resources to create an infographic and many students would need a thorough tutorial on how to use the necessary programs to do so.
One of the Advanced Composition teachers only had a small group of seniors (20 students) and this case study covers the delivery of new content using the flipped classroom model, the work done in class after receiving the new content, and the results of the flipped classroom model’s use based on assessment of their culminating projects in their first unit of study for this limited sample population.
3. Solutions Implemented
Students in Cherokee County use the Canvas LMS (Learning Management System) and as a result of their familiarity with the software, the sample population of 20 seniors were anticipated to quickly adapt to the hybrid model of instruction as a result of the continued coronavirus pandemic. The Advanced Composition teachers at Etowah High School collaborate within a professional learning community (PLC) and decided to create a series of instructional videos and tutorials that students could use at home to learn new concepts. After learning the new content and concepts at home using the videos students would return to class on their designated days (per the hybrid model) and be provided with laptops to create the desired products that could be assessed to determine the mastery of content and learning outcomes. This solution implemented using the flipped classroom model to teach students virtually on the days that they were out of the building and then workshop their composition pieces with them on the 2 days of the week that they were fac-to-face learners.
Videos for the flipped classroom model were created using Canvas Studio and were natively integrated into instructor course pages. The content of the videos included tutorials for using webpages like Canva and programs like Adobe Spark to create meaningful and impactful infographics on their chosen social issue. Students had been tasked with picking one important social issue and examining it in a variety of different composition methods, with the culminating piece being the creation of an infographic intended for use in a social media campaign to educate a youth audience.
Over the course of a two week period, Group A of the 20 student sample (students with last names beginning A-K) received their flipped instruction on Tuesday and Friday and were face-to-face on Monday and Thursday. Conversely, Group B of the 20 student sample (students with last names beginning L-Z) received their flipped instruction on Monday and Thursday and were face-to-face on Tuesday and Friday. All students were learning digitally on Wednesdays and would not receive new content, instead using the day as a recovery or enrichment period.
4. Outcomes
At the conclusion of the two week period, students were expected to have completed and submitted a satisfactory infographic that showcased their ability to learn and master the new content that had been delivered to them using the flipped model. This product-based assessment would serve as a culminating activity for the unit of study but also assess the viability of the flipped classroom model in the hybrid learning modality.
Within Group A, 9 out of the 10 students showcased mastery level of the standards associated with the assignment as well as producing high quality infographics that indicated their ability to successfully learn and navigate the software through the flipped classroom model. Additionally, within Group B there were 7 out of 10 students who achieved the same degree of target mastery and met the desired outcome of producing a quality infographic on their chosen topics.
4 students (one from Group A and 3 from Group B) either turned in work that was not indicative of mastery or they did not turn in the assignment at all. All 4 of these students reported that they felt comfortable using the software that had been taught using the flipped classroom model but did not do enough research on their topic to create a quality culminating product.
5. Implications
The results of this case study indicate that the flipped classroom model could indeed be a successful tool to use in hybrid or face-to-face instructional modalities, with an overwhelming success rate of 85% of students in the sample achieving target mastery and producing a product that was indicative of having successfully learned the software (Canva or Adobe Spark) through the flipped classroom video content.
One aspect of note is that students at the senior level are arguably more acclimated to using the digital tools associated with classroom instruction and were therefore accustomed to learning content via the flipped classroom model. Additionally, the content being delivered was not complex in nature but rather an introduction to two tools used for making digital graphics and tutorials on how to use them to accomplish the desired task. After viewing the tutorials (which sent notifications to instructors that students had indeed viewed them) students were expected to use that knowledge in creating a quality infographic and, as stated previously, 17 out of 20 students in the sample successfully created an infographic that exemplified mastery of learning targets.
A consideration to be made is one of access to technology outside of school other than smartphones, as many students in the Cherokee County district do have access to laptops or other personal computers but some do not. For those students who did not turn in satisfactory work or did not turn in a submission at all, it begs the question over whether access was an issue rather than understanding. Even though smartphones are the primary way that students access technology while in the classroom, some of the content (especially content designed for use in a flipped classroom setting) is better suited for viewing on a personal computer where students can then better access the tools necessary to assess their knowledge on a newly introduced topic. As Matthew Hiefield notes, many of his students have previously “stated that they have internet access at home, but it amounted to using a parent’s smartphone to access the Internet” which he argues is not a feasible way to be able to interact with and absorb the content (Hiefield, 2017).
Statistics on flipped classroom learning indicate that 96% of instructors who have used the method would recommend it to a colleague but there are significant barriers to accomplishing this degree of saturation in public classroom instruction (Ferriman, 2014). In addition to the aforementioned barriers to Internet access that students might be experiencing outside of the classroom, there is a tendency for newer methods of technologically-focused instructional design to be quick fads that fade away after just a few years of practice and implementation. The flipped classroom model has combated this trend by not only exhibiting staying power within the K-12 classroom, but also seeing a dramatic increase in its use in the last decade. In light of recent global events, it is difficult to imagine a scenario where the flipped classroom model would not come in handy in terms of teaching new content to students as they frequently rotate in and out of classrooms.
References
Brame, C. (2020, March 26). Flipping the Classroom. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/
Finkel, E. (2012). Flipping the script in K-12. District Administration, 48(10), 28.
Ferlazzo, L. (2020, August 19). Blended Learning in the Age of COVID-19. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2020/08/blended_learning_in_the_age_of_covid-19.html
Tang, T., National Study Abroad Fund of China: [Grant Number 201808515077]; Collaborative Edu, & Abuhmaid, R. (n.d.). Efficiency of flipped classroom with online-based teaching under COVID-19. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10494820.2020.1817761
CCSD Reopening of School FAQs 2020-21. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.cherokeek12.net/Content2/7498
Hiefield, M. (n.d.). Flipped Classrooms and the Digital Divide: Challenges and Remedies. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://connect.iste.org/blogs/matthew-hiefield/2017/10/27/flipped-classrooms-and-the-digital-divide-challenges-and-remedies
Ferriman, J. (2020, January 14). Interesting Flipped Classroom Statistics. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.learndash.com/interesting-flipped-classroom-statistics/