The phrase ‘flipping the classroom’ refers to an approach where the standard lecture or exposition is recorded and provided to students in a digital fashion — like a video or a narrated slide presentation — accessible at home where students can pause and rewind the presentation as many times as needed.  Class time is spent doing what used to be called homework exercises or activities with the assistance of the instructor. This approach to the classroom has also been referred to as SCALE-UP (student centered active learning environment with upside down pedagogy).  It has already been used to teach General Physics I,  Principles of Chemistry I, and remedial math courses among many other courses at Montgomery College.

The videos and information below provide a general understanding of what professors are doing when they flip their classrooms and why they are doing it.

PBS Story on Flipping the Classroom

Flipping the Classroom: Simply Speaking

The Flipped Classroom, Aaron Sams

Flipped Classroom: Nick Shepherd at TEDxMCPSTeachers

Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education.  TED

The Inverted Classroom: High School vs. University

ELITE Faculty Showcase December 2015 Flipped Classroom

Examples of videos for Flipped Classrooms

Biology Professor at Emory University uses Flipped Approach

Flipping the Classroom at the University of Groningen

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Articles About Flipping the Classroom

Educational World shifts to new phenomenon ‘the flipped classroom’, Lily Burba, The Depauw, February 16, 2015

Local School Tests Flipped Curriculum, Queen Muse, NBC10.com, December 15, 2014

Rethinking the Lecture: In the Information Age, It’s Time to Flip the Classroom, Ryan Craig, Wired, October 27, 2014. Three things are listed as presenting resistance to flipping the classroom.  First, faculty.  Flipping classes is like developing new ones: it takes a lot of work.  It is even more challenging when the technological component is considered.  Presently there is no incentive to engage in this work given how faculty members are paid.  Second, Students.  They have grown comfortable with the lecture model and they are resistant to models which require them to stay current on materials. Third, architecture.  Many classes were constructed with large groups of students in mind.

MIT Professor Uses MOOC to Flip Classroom, Leila Meyer, Campus Technology, November 11, 2014

The Flipped Classroom May Help Weaker STEM Students, Allie Bidwell, U. S. News and World Report, August 5, 2014

Flip, Blend and serve up more enticing education through technology, Maureen Downey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 23, 2014

2 Great Techniques for the Fipped Classroom, Diane Shaffhauser, Campus Technology, August 13, 2014

Science Classrooms get a Makeover, Ilya Yashin, The Pitt News, May 27, 2014

Assessing the Flipped Classroom’s Impact on Learning, David Rath, Campus Technology, January 22, 2014.

Still in favor of the Flip,Carl Straumsheim, Inside HigherEd, October 13, 2013

Classes Should do hands-on exercises before reading and video, Stanford Researchers say, Stanford Report, July 16, 2013

The Fallacy of evaluating “the flipped class,” Dr. Jung Choi, Jung’s Biology Blog, April 28th, 2014

“Flipped classroom” under study at Kenmore High School, Dan Minor, Buffalo Business First, March 25, 2014

Professors:  Here’s how to flip your classroom, Brian Lukoff, Matthew Stoltfus, Ecampus News, March 24, 2014

Rochester Institute of Technology Embraces the Flipped Classroom, Paul Riismandel, StreamingMedia.com, March 21, 2014

Students at UNC vary in opinions of flipped classroom style, Amanda Raymond, DailyTarheel.com, March 19, 2014

FLN Shares its Four Pillars of Flipped Learning, Christopher Piehler, THE Journal, March 12, 2014

Teachers see improvements from flipped classroom, Matthew Stolle, PostBulletin.com, February 28, 2014

Flipped classroom forum challenges education, Alexandria Zamecnik, Royal Purple News, February 19, 2014

Flipping the flipped classroom, Steve Blank, Xconomy, February 12, 2014

Teen Life: Why experiment with flipped classroom failed, By Rahul Jayaraman, San Jose Mercury News, February 8, 2014

Could this be the solution to America’s STEM graduate deficit? David Martin, Aljazeera America, January 24, 2014

Assessing the flipped classroom’s impact on learning, David Raths, Campus Technology, January 22, 2014

Calculus expands ‘flipped’ model, Jennifer Gersten, Yale News, January 22, 2014

Flipped classrooms provide a new way of learning, Dean Reynolds,  CBSnews, January 20, 2014

Jury still out on benefits of “flipped” classroom, Linda Yeung, South China Morning Post, January 13, 2014

Professors ‘Flip’ classrooms, enhance learning, Kristen Chung, The Daily Tar Heel, January 8, 2013

Convene — Flipping the Classroom for Meetings, Barbara Palmer, Convene Magazine, December 31, 2013

Why 86% of UN-Chapel Hill Students Prefer the Flipped Classroom,  Jimmy Daly, EDTECH HigherEd, December 18, 2013

Education Reform has to Begin in the ‘Flipped Classroom,’  Suthichai Yoon,  The Nation, December 19, 2013

How one school turned homework on its head with ‘flipped’ instruction, by Mike Fritz, PBSNewshour, December 5, 2013

How ‘Flipped Classrooms’ are turning the traditional school day upside down, PBSNewshour, December 11, 2013

It’s a Flipping Revolution, by Steven Neshyba, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2013

How Flipping the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture, by Dan Berrett, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 19, 2012

Inside the Flipped Classroom, by Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 30, 2013

Why 86% of UNC – Chapel Hill Student Prefer the Flipped Classroom, Jim Daley, EDtech, December 13, 2013

‘”Foundations of Flipped Learning” Named Top Product of 2013 by School Administrators,’ Lisa Wolfe, PRWEB, December 29, 2013

‘Flipped Classrooms’ may not have any impact on learning, Emily Atteberry, USAToday, December 5, 2013
Article is reviewed here.  It was written on a pilot of a study being conducted on flipped classes by two professors from Harvey Mudd College on four classes.  The actually study has just started.  In spite of the small size of the study, it has had an extraordinary amount of coverage in the press.  This press coverage provides evidence that can be used to support the sponsorship outlined in the Microsoft sponsorship memo at the top of the site.

Fact Sheet on the President’s Plan to Make College More Affordable: A Better Bargain for the Middle Class, August 22, 2013
This sheet makes specific reference to flipping the classroom.

Colleges Looking Beyond the Lecture, Mark Gail, Washington Post, February 15, 2012

Flipped Classroom Model not Like Flipping a Switch, Gary L. Smith, Journal Star, December 15, 2013
Havana School District in Illinois intended to flip curriculum “but it was never fully implemented,” said Superintendent Matt Plater, who came to Havana a year later.  A former superintendent and principal who had been pushing the proposal both left, and it turned out the district had neither the technology foundation nor the teacher participation to carry out the curriculum-wide change, Plater said.  Midland is in the early stages of discussing the concept, and Superintendent Rolf Sivertsen said he would be talking to other districts as part of that process. The question of “teacher buy-in” was one of the issues he had raised at a recent board meeting.  “You’re talking about a lot of concepts that are alien to teachers,” Sivertsen said.

Flipping a Large Introduction to Biology Class — Round 2, Dr. Jung Choi, Jung’s Biology Blog, October 5, 2012.  Jung Choi is an Associate Professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech and Director of the Professional Science Masters program in Bioinformatics.  She has been at Georgia Tech since 1986.  She writes, “it may take time and iterations for even experienced instructors to find their groove in the flipped classroom (I speak from personal experience).”

Flipped Classroom  — A Short Bibliography

Groups

Writing programs have often had students working groups during contact hours.  It has been called the conference circle approach.  When classes are flipped and students no longer need to listen to lectures, class time can be devoted to group activities.  This makes it possible for students to have more opportunities to help each other learn.

Interview in Change with Greg Bowe, former director of the Writing Program at Florida International University where the conference circle approach was used for five years.

Writing Circles, Jim Vopat
Discusses the use of writing circles in K-12 classrooms.

Socratic Circles, Matt Copeland
Using conference circles in middle school and high school.

The Writing Circle, Sylvia Gunnery
Explores classroom writing groups as a powerful structure for giving students the support and guidance they need. Based on a common structure found in the writing world outside of school, these groups provide an ideal way for students to learn from each other. Under the teacher’s guidance, young writers can work together on all aspects of the writing process—sharing drafts of writing, responding to each other’s works-in-progress, and building confidence in themselves as writers.