The Flipped Classroom and What It Takes
Part of the new approach to learning is to lessen the one-way flow of information from expert to student, and for the expert to center on the learner. When the educator, as part of the designed lesson plan, deliberately chooses to refrain from using lecturing as the sole means of teaching, she can replace it with another powerful action: to hold the space of listening.1 This action inverts the traditional approach to education, creating what is called the “flipped classroom,” a term coined in 2012 by American chemistry teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams.2 They converted a lecture-based class into a participatory setting with a simple inversion. Instead of asking students to listen to lectures and do homework to apply what was taught, they provided students with materials and videos to watch in between classes, and used the classroom time to dialogue and work collaboratively on problems. They found a deeper learning and improved grades as a result, and the concept has since spread outside the United States.
Finkel notes that the conceptual shift from teaching to facilitating learning may pose a challenge both to the instructor and to the students. The tendency to rely on opinions of powerful others is something that originates in our first years of life, when we depend for survival on some almighty adults who know how to take care of all our needs. That expectation lingers under the surface throughout our life, repeated in expectations toward our bosses, politicians, spouses, doctors, or—teachers!
This means that students may have to learn a new way of participating, of taking full ownership of their learning. It also means that educators have to review their own habits, teaching methodologies, and instincts. It will not be easy going against the grain at first, but the benefits do not take long to manifest themselves. Professor Anthony Buono, at Bentley University, describes his initial struggle as he explored the role of learning facilitator in an undergraduate course. He found that, as he intentionally set aside his customary role of expert, the result was an unnerving silence from the class. He writes of wrestling to address this with his tendency to “fill in the blanks” when confronted by a lack of responsiveness from the class. He persevered, and was happy to find that the less he talked, the more the students did.
To design and facilitate learning in this way, educators may have to reflect on the meaning of power and authority in the classroom. As noted in Chapter 1, when professors in higher education are not given proper pedagogical training, many rely on teaching just as they have been taught. This means that the traditional power relationship is replicated: the expert-professor holds the power to state outcomes, to set the norms for interaction, to give assignments and grades, and to decide on the pass or fail. This gives rise to an interesting question. Is it possible that some educators, who had not had good personal experiences as students, may, on becoming the teacher in power, find a way to compensate for the frustrations of the past?
But as we have seen, the circumstances are changing. In the past the students accepted the rules of the game because they were receiving content and experience from the instructors, which they could not get in other ways. This seems to be different at the current time, since no expert can always compete with updated contents available online! The interesting cultural shift is from power to authority, where, for educators, respect is gained when we are able to create the best learning environment, one that is empowering, exciting, motivating, engaging, relevant, and meaningful.
The learning facilitator therefore will be called to demonstrate innovative skills in class design, as well as careful and rigorous preparation. At the same time, versatility and flexibility become essential to the educators in adapting to what happens in the classroom and to consider the questions and interests of the class. If we truly believe that our focus should be on the students’ learning and not, as traditionally, on the teaching of subjects, we need to pay attention to the questions in the classroom, and listen to what they are telling us. What issues are the questions raising, what is unclear, confusing, difficult to relate to, disconnected from the students’ experience or reality, and challenging to their beliefs or understanding? This may be what requires our attention, and we need to let go of our plan in order to follow where that reality is taking us. This is assuming that the questions are related to the theme, at least in the mind of the students. It may not seem obvious or important for the educator, but they need to be listened to carefully. And if we cannot alter our plan, we need to find a way to attend to those questions, because ignoring them will not make them disappear.
Other competencies important for effective learning facilitation are those related with creating democratic and participatory environments, an appreciative atmosphere in the classroom and empowering interactions, which will be the new added value of educators. While it may seem that relinquishing power would undermine the importance of the learning facilitator’s presence in the flipped classroom, ironically, just the opposite occurs. By role-modeling a “white-belt” attitude, the educator opens a different environment for learning, one where students are empowered, coached, mentored, and the learning happens for everyone—educator included. The educator who talks less, is more listened to, and is granted the respect of her authority, as she adds wisdom to knowledge.
Finkel, addressing an understandable concern of some educators, observes that as the educator tries to create a democratic setting in the classroom, she will not lose authority, and will never be seen as the students’ equal. The difference is that she can make the students aware of their recurrent, spontaneous tendency to seek an all-knowing authority, which is equal to granting power to the expert while abdicating the own power. Becoming aware of that unconscious pattern we all carry from our childhood is already a great learning gift. The intentional abdication of “expert” power in no way equates to loss of authority. Indeed, discovering that we as educators can earn even greater authority by intentionally “letting go” of the familiar trappings of our power can be a step in our personal development.
It is interesting how little research is focused on this power shift in the classroom that the new generation is calling for.3 While there are plenty of resources available addressing how to innovate in business school or higher education teaching; incorporate technology, creativity, pragmatism; use ethical or sustainability lenses into all we teach; and make e-learning and virtual classrooms good learning experiences, there is very little exploration of the challenges in the power relationship in the class-room. A literature review on power and authority in the classroom brings up mostly governance issues, discrimination and egalitarian education, tensions between authorities and educators, affirmative action and power understood differently by men and by women, but leaves unexplored the changing power dynamics in the teacher–student relationship for the new generation. Most importantly, in a context that might be seen as restricting and questioning teachers’ traditional power, we are failing to notice the new developmental opportunities opening up for teachers. Significantly, we ignore the benefits of experimenting how to approach power—such as converting “power over” into “empowering other,” thus increasing respect and developing professional and moral authority vis-àvis the students.
This said, it is clear that both teachers and students need to make the shift. There are few chances that this will happen spontaneously, and it is unlikely that students will overwhelmingly demand it from their teachers. Too many years of behavioral conditioning have shaped our young into individuals with unquestioned acceptance of the status quo. To navigate through formal education, they have learned what gets rewarded, and what to avoid. But, is this the attitude we want to foster in the generation that will have to start solving the problems we have created? How is our pedagogical approach developing empowered men and women, who can become self-aware and confident, engaged and proactive? Given that the future is shaped by the new trends and not by old habits, we, the educators, should consider that we need to adapt to our students’ world, rather than the other way around. For the greater benefit of both.