Studies of Flipping Classes with Asian Students

Introduction: Defining And Applying Flipped Classroom Methods

The second part of Ferlazzo’s Education Week Teacher series (2014) on the flipped classroom is titled “Flipped Learning Makes Teachers More Valuable.” In it, Jonathan Bergmann was asked a disturbing question by state educational representatives as follows. “Will we be able to hire less teachers due to flipped classes?” He became unglued, stating that they had completely missed the point of the flipped classroom, which is to employ wise teachers who know how to engage learners with more media-rich educational applications that shift responsibility for learning onto the shoulders and minds of students themselves. Teachers then become facilitators of learning by working with students in small groups and interacting with them one-on-one.

The point and purpose of “flipping classes” towards more student autonomy and responsibility is not to increase teacher unemployment, but rather to increase student engagement by wiser use of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), TELL (Technology-Enhanced Language Learning) and SMALL mobile-enhanced E-Learning (or Social Media Enhanced Language Learning). In support of these aims, let’s look at some definitions of “Flipped Classroom” instruction.

One often sees the metaphor of “flipping or turning the traditional class on its head,” as in the following sources:

• 1.

  The Flipped Classroom: Turning the Traditional Classroom on its Head (Knewton, 2011). Many educators are experimenting with the idea of a flipped classroom model. Find out what it is and why everyone's talking about it.

• 2.

  Flipped Classroom: Software program maker TechSmith states, “By implementing the flipped learning approach, teachers are able to save time, build stronger relationships with students, and let students take control of their own learning” (n.d.).

• 3.

  There are many additional articles and blogs are available on the TechSmith website. For example, Erik Christensen discusses his successful approach to the flipped classroom approach in his blog To Flip or Not to Flip Your Classroom (2015).