The global pandemic has led to the sudden switch to e-learning and made education harder for high schoolers. The lack of time and passive online lectures are not a cut-out for the quality of education that educational institutions should be providing. To help students stay active during online classes, the teachers put every effort into utilizing their time efficiently. Peer learning is the alternative to distant online learning that is tiring, lonely, and detaching. However, it’s challenging to cover the curriculum by applying several collaborative learning strategies. There’s a way to resolve all of your concerns and help enhance class participation and time management. For this purpose, you need to flip the classroom. It betters the quality of learning by introducing high-level active learning activities.
Flipping your classroom is a simple way, requiring the educators to re-establish the class structure to complete the course within the assigned time.
What does “flip the classroom” mean?
Flipping the classroom is an instructional strategy that alternates the traditional approach. Before every lecture, the students educate themselves by reviewing online courses, reading-related content, or online quizzes. Students get to apply their current knowledge by performing several creative activities.
Flipped classrooms were first the blend of both online and offline learning elements. Students were supposed to review online lectures related to the topic they were learning in the class. In this way, their prior knowledge would help them understand the contents of the in-person lesson well.
This article will discuss flipped classrooms by keeping remote learning in view. Students learn the topic-related content beforehand, according to their capacity. And then utilize collaborative discussion strategies to elaborate their thoughts and understandings.
Boosted engagement with flipped classrooms
Students show more engagement in learning more in flipped classrooms when compared to traditional because flipped classrooms primarily focus on high-order learning activities, like evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing new content, which helps increase student participation.
With the help of flipped classrooms, instructors identify the weak points. It also enables students to develop questioning skills that help them retain knowledge. Even though distance learning is disengaging and lonely, peer learning in flipped classrooms helps build a community that enables progress.
How to flip your online classroom?
The main factor in a flipped classroom is preparing both asynchronous class material and collaborative learning during class time.
Here are the four basics in flipped learning:
Relaxed environment: Flipped classrooms have flexible timelines and patterns compared to traditional classrooms. Students are in charge of deciding how and where to arrange their asynchronous study sessions.
Learning culture: Unlike traditional classrooms, students are responsible for retaining knowledge rather than teachers.
Planned content: You should manage the asynchronous learning content in the best possible way and don’t let students depend on pre-recorded video lectures only. Ensure that it is engaging, informative, and credible.
Professional teacher: The role of a teacher switched from an imparter of knowledge to the provider of knowledge in flipped classrooms. To master the new positions, teachers must receive professional drills to introduce collaborative learning strategies for online studying.
Keep these fours basics of a flipped classroom in mind, and let’s look at how to enforce a flipped classroom.
Asynchronous content mastery
Hold students responsible for their learning by introducing them to out-of-class studying programs that are interactive and efficient. Besides pre-recorded video lectures, many other learning methods lack enough peer interaction.
Creating learning flows is an excellent alternative that is more engaging and innovative. Mandate the students to complete the given task before the lecture so that the instructor clears every issue right away.
Synchronous classroom time
Encourage students to participate in class discussions actively. Introduce collaborative learning strategies to help students create new content evaluate, analyze materials.
Coming up with collaborative learning strategies is a hassle with remote learning. It requires extra attention and time to come up with rewarding techniques. But the results are always worth the struggle. Here are a few responsibilities:
1. Classroom Debates
Assign students with two opposing sides to present an argument within the time limit given.
2. Jigsaw
Make groups of students consisting of almost 4 to 5 students each. Every group is assigned a topic for research, and then they are supposed to convey a presentation to the class, interactively demonstrating all the related information.
3. Seminars
Allow students to lead the class discussions and share their findings with the class. It will drive active responses from the class and enhance students’ interactive skills.
All of these ways allow students to engage and learn together. The teacher primarily monitors their activities to ensure that every student participates and no one is behind.
