What the Flip: Embracing Flipped Learning as a Mediated Approach in Teacher Education

Background

In 2013, Fullan described the state of education as one in which both teachers and students were being pushed out of schools. He noted the tension between students’ boredom with current teaching methods and the coinciding pull toward external uses of technology. Fullan further cautioned against the urge to admonish teachers’ lack of technology use or attempts to inhibit students’ use of technology. Instead, the author (Fullan, 2013b) advocated for a “new pedagogy” that would meet the following criteria: a) irresistibly engaging for both students and teachers, b) elegantly efficient and easy to access and use, c) technologically ubiquitous 24/7 and, d) steeped in real-life problem solving. Moreover, educators were encouraged to assume the role of mentors who recognize and encourage while facilitating and stretching (Robinson, 2015). The recommendation came as educators were being pressed to infuse daily lessons with interactive technologies.

Scholars make comparisons between how students have learned in the past and the more participatory nature of contemporary instruction using digital media, as well as discussing the need for training a “corps of tech-savvy teachers” (Crane, 2009; Gee & Levine, 2008, para. 13). Gee and Levine (2008) posit that “most practitioners are unskilled in embedding new media in powerful instructional practices… [and] teachers cannot teach what they do not know” (para. 13). Without a bridge between new digital literacy practices and those traditionally emphasized in schools, there is a great potential for the creation of a new class of illiteracy (Gee & Levine, 2008; Shelby-Caffey et al., 2014). Though these contentions were primarily directed toward K-12 students and teachers, the pandemic exposed their pertinence to higher education and the applicability to professionals in different sectors. Likewise, the need for institutions to exhibit agility and resilience became evident.

Fast forward to March 2020, when communities and P-20 educational systems worldwide were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aforementioned arguments reverberated more as foreshadowing than mere assertion. Life as we knew it changed. As in-person classes came to a screeching halt, educators across the globe were forced to reconcile the chasm between traditional methods of doing schooling and the new realities of virtual teaching and learning. The absence of both digital technology and/or the requisite knowledge to fully engage students in using them drew attention to the necessity for a pedagogical evolution. Educators labored to adjust their classroom practices to unchartered digital spaces, with increasing energies devoted to what Crane (2009) characterized as social learning and networking as well as the interplay between consumers’ production, contribution, consumption, and acquisition of knowledge. As such, the use of technological resources such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Kahoot, Pear Deck, Screencastify, and Flipgrid emerged in classrooms as educators at all levels scrambled to figure out the best ways to use them to engage learners. Educators who were able to quickly make the shift and use the available technology likely provided much richer experiences for their students and contributed to students’ developing knowledge and capabilities that make them more apt to use technology.