Pedagogical Orientation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Flipped Classroom Model

Introduction

Redesigning higher education has been identified as one of the important elements for preparing teachers for their career success in the fourth industrial revolution. Therefore, higher education and teacher education in particular have entered a critical phase of transformation (Marks, 2015). Rani (2018) emphasized that the process of teaching and learning needed to be transformed to suit current student needs and their learning environment. Teaching strategies are one main concern and need to be examined and probably transformed. Despite the current demands for the 21^st-century skills and approaching fourth industrial revolution, teaching approaches have not changed in light of the new educational challenges. Although the learning and teaching landscape is changing, the lecture method remains a common way of delivering instruction to learners (Cashin, 1995) and a preferred approach in many countries around the world (Saavedra & Opfer, 2012). Yet, many resources widely available online have become a main source of reference for students. Besides, borderless communication has made peer interaction and peer-to-peer learning possible. As for lecturers, their new role as a facilitator in student learning process will require a new teaching approach different from that of the main provider of knowledge. Included among the important elements to be prioritised in the teaching process in the fourth industrial revolution are learning spaces, pedagogies, the curriculum, and teaching technologies (Rani, 2018).

Therefore, teacher educators not only face the challenge of preparing teachers for new ways of teaching but also must embrace and model best practices for the new ideas (Marks, 2015). However, educators have always looked for alternative ways of engaging their students in the classroom (Bacsich et al. 2013). For some teacher educators, the flipped classroom model is considered a better approach because the focus of higher education is in a transition from teaching to learning (Marks, 2015). This means that students are indirectly being prepared for the fourth industrial revolution for which they will need to engage in learning to acquire skills for jobs that do not existed and that may continue for the rest of their lives (Study Malaysia, 2018). Thus the flipped classroom strategy not only prepares students for lifelong learning (Bland, 2006), but also responds to the teaching and learning challenges of the present time.

Teacher educators have considered the extensive research dedicated to understanding how people really learn and the best possible approaches for teaching them to think creatively (Ambrose et al., 2010). This is very important to understand because students from different cultures and from different backgrounds as well as age groups learn in different ways (Choy et al., 2015).

As we have entered the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), teacher educators will need to impart knowledge in ways that will nurture the current skill sets that are in demand such as problem solving, critical thinking and creativity. That only happens when teacher educators realize that they must train students to possess adaptive and flexible minds. This would equip students with the cognitive agility required for the fast-paced knowledge and digital challenges of future learning environments (Gleason et al., 2011). As such, a need exists for pedagogical transformation from the lecture format with a professor transferring knowledge to large number of students to a different approach. This is because this approach to student learning is outdated and does not deliver the skills required in the era of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). As such, teacher educators need to employ some new pedagogical approaches.