iCTLT 2016

The flipped classroom approach has gained much traction in recent years among international educators. The flipped classroom approach aims to develop student’s competencies in allowing them to take ownership of their learning. Flipping the classroom establishes a framework that ensures students receive a personalised education which is tailored to their individual needs. (Bergman & Sams, 2012; Keengwe, 2014)

Many Singaporean teachers however, generally found that the adoption of the flipped approach was not the most efficient way to teach, even though most agreed that it promised deep and effective learning among students. This is further compounded by the constraints of a national syllabus and standardised national examinations that give teachers little luxury of time to embark and explore this approach.

The employment of the blended flipped classroom entails the incorporation of certain but not all elements from the traditional flipped classroom, together with any other feasible pedagogical strategies, that may include certain teacher-facilitated and didactic approaches, so that the national syllabus can still be completed on time and yet still bring about desired outcomes in students with respect to independent and student-directed learning.

In this blended approach, Web 2.0 tools (eg. Weebly and Kahoots), other collaborative ICT tools (eg. TodaysMeet and Prezi) are married with traditional pen-and-paper methods to ensure that students had easy-to-navigate platforms for self-directed learning, student-led discussions and for the assessment of their learning.

Students in the blended flipped classroom are able to toggle effectively between technology-based methods and didactic methods, either working independently or collaboratively during project work, to achieve the learning outcomes.

Through this approach, students were observed to learn independently, within and beyond the scope of the syllabus. They were also observed to be more curious, interested and motivated in the subject. Teachers also expressed that they had more time to work on common misconceptions with students and address areas of concern more specifically as the students came to class prepared and were able to articulate clearly what they did not know or what they wanted to know.

In this presentation, we will walk delegates through some of the strategies, online and offline that students have themselves gone through. Some of the challenges that the teachers have faced during the initial stages of implementation and plans moving forward will also be shared so that participants can customise and develop their own brand of a flipped approach that works for their unique learners or environment.