Adapting the flipped classroom
Surabhi Agarwal
It might seem an easy life for a teacher: teach, explain, ask, give homework, correct. Repeat these steps till the course is completed.
But the question is: Is this what our students need?
Explaining a concept clearly is just one part of the teacher’s life. The utmost responsibility of a teacher is to spark curiosity in their students. Along with that, the art of self-learning, researching, discussing, and putting their thoughts into words are some of the skills necessary to survive in today’s ever-changing world.
The future is unpredictable, so we, as teachers, must prepare our students for the unknown, where they can survive, thrive, and grow. Once they learn ‘how to learn,’ they can survive in any era and on any planet.
This is what I hope to instill in my class. There are many techniques that I keep trying. One that I found immensely helpful and encouraging is the ‘Flipped Classroom’ technique, but with a twist.
This is a group activity; students are given the liberty to choose their own groups. I assign different topics that I want my students to understand and learn. They get 2-3 days for research. They are then expected to present and explain their topic to the class.
Illustration: Divya Choudary, generated using AI
This sounds simple and easy, but implementing this exercise was difficult as students are so used to memorizing the steps and getting the correct answer that they don’t bother to look beyond that. They are reluctant to think about the need, importance, and necessity of the topic. They never ask why they are learning a particular topic.
My students began their research on ‘how to solve’ rather than ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the given topic.
Students are tuned to learning the steps, doing them correctly, and receiving the teacher’s praise and marks, but by doing this alone, they miss out on the fun part of learning.
It took me some time to help my students realize that they first need to understand the ‘what’ and ‘why of a concept’ and then the ‘how’ of it.
Another important observation that I made during my flipped classrooms is that a high scoring student struggles the most to understand the fun and beauty of these activities.
There are hundreds of theories on teaching and learning. What worked for me and my students is this step-by-step process.
Step 1: Individual research.
Step 2: Individual research leading to group discussion.
Step 3: Presenting/teaching it to the group/class.
Step 4: Questioning and building their knowledge.
Dear teachers, this is what worked for me. Experiment with your class and figure out what works for you and your students.
The author is a middle school mathematics facilitator at Greenwood High School, Bengaluru. She started her journey as an educator from pre-primary, slowly moving to primary and now to the middle school level. She can be reached at suragar@yahoo.com.
