Flipping the Classroom
With careful planning, innovative thinking, and access to quality resources, the traditional classroom can be flipped into a hands-on active learning environment that pushes student critical thinking to a higher level.
What Does It Mean to Flip the Classroom?
In a traditional classroom, students listen passively and simultaneously to a lecture and then complete related assignments on their own outside of class.
The downside of this method is that all students must stay on the same pace during the live lecture with little time to pause and reflect. When challenged to engage with this material in an assignment at home, they often struggle without guidance from a peer or faculty member.
Flipping the classroom occurs when the delivery of traditional lecture material occurs outside of the classroom and the “hands-on doing” of projects and assignment occur in the classroom.
The benefit of this method is that students are allowed time to pause and reflect on course content at their own pace prior to class and come prepared to engage with course content on a higher level with peers and faculty in class.
By applying Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, this means that students acquire general knowledge and understanding on their own time (low level of the pyramid) and utilize that new knowledge to analyze, evaluate, and create during class time (higher level of the pyramid).
What Methods Are Used to Flip the Classroom?
Prior to Class
Provide students with one or more of the following:
Pre-recorded lectures (most common)
Reading assignments
Self-assessment quizzes
Reflection questions
Learning assignments
During Class
Engage students in one or more of the following:
Hands-on activities
Group projects
Guided discussion
Direct feedback from faculty and/or peers
How Can I Successfully Flip the Classroom?
1. Use Short Professional Video Clips
Students prefer watching several short videos than one long video.
Assign several 5-10 minute videos instead of one full-length (e.g., 1-2 hour) lecture on video.
Ensure high audio quality so that students can easily hear the speaker.
Ensure high visual quality so that students can see the speaker’s facial expressions and clearly observe demonstrations up close.
Use the ICE Video Library to add short professional video clips to your online presentation or learning assignment. The majority of ICE videos are under ten minutes and can be easily accessed online. See ICE Lesson Plans for concrete examples of how to flip the classroom with ICE videos.
2. Use Meaningful and Interesting Content
Whether live or recorded, all lectures should contain content that motivates and inspires student learning.
Use videos of real patients and therapists to capture students’ attention.
Use videos of real treatment sessions to help students apply lecture content to real life.
The ICE Video Library has over 150 videos of real patients and real therapists in settings that include outpatient clinics, acute rehabilitation, intensive care units, and home environments. Diagnoses include musculoskeletal injuries, neurological diseases, pediatric anomalies, respiratory complications, and more. ICE videos can be used in a variety of courses, including introductory theory, professional issues, psychosocial.
3. Hold Students Accountable for Preparation
Increase student responsibility by holding them accountable for learning material prior to attending class.
Assign a quiz or assignment to be completed before arrival to the classroom. Ask students to print out their assignment or quiz score as their “ticket” to enter the classroom and enforce “no entry without a ticket.”
Assign a quiz or assignment to be completed during class time. This can be as simple as 3-5 questions at the start of class or as involved as a large project that takes up the majority of class time.
Give clear expectations for what students need to know prior to class.
Spend classroom time applying new knowledge rather than lecturing on material that students were responsible for learning outside of the classroom (students learn quickly that they don’t need to do the work if you are going to do it for them in class!).
When using ICE videos prior to classroom time, ask students to answer discussion questions or write a SOAP note to bring to class. See the ICE Lesson Plans for sample discussion questions and learning activities.
4. Engage Students in Real-Time Activity With Peers
Students need to manipulate material from the videos in a challenging way in the classroom.
Provide thoughtful hands-on activities or group discussion questions to encourage productive student interaction.
Arrange the classroom to accommodate small group work.
Give clear instructions and a rubric when applicable.
Use videos of patient encounters found in the ICE Video Library as a catalyst for a class activity. Students could discuss questions about the patient encounter, role play the patient encounter, and/or write a treatment plan based on the patient encounter. See the ICE Lesson Plans for sample discussion questions and learning activities.
5. Supervise and Interact With Student Groups in Class
Students want to know that they are receiving excellent training from an experienced clinician and/or faculty member.
While students work in groups, check in with students frequently to answer questions and help steer the discussion in the right direction.
Ask students to write down their questions so that they don’t forget when you walk by their group.
Allow adequate class time for feedback and faculty-led discussion.
The ICE Video Library is so much more valuable when paired with feedback and guidance from a faculty clinician. Students often overlook safety issues, cognitive challenges, environmental conditions, etc, and need a faculty member to help them see a bigger picture. Be sure to follow up and ensure a well-rounded learning experience!
References
Abeysekera, L., & Dawson, P. (2015). Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: Definition, rationale and a call for research. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(1), 1-14. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2014.934336
Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day. Arlington, VA: International Society for Technology in Education.
Burden, M. L., Carlton, K. H., Siktberg, L, & Pavlechko, G. (2015). Flipping the classroom: Strategies for psychiatric-mental health course. Nurse Educator, 40(5), 233-236.
Franqueira, V., & Tunnicliffe, P. (2015). To flip or not to flip: A critical interpretive synthesis of flipped teaching. In V. L. Uskov, R. J. Howlett, & L. C. Jain (Eds)., Smart Education and Smart E-learning (57-67). Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-19875-0_6
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41(4), 212-218.
Sams, A., & Bergmann, J. (2013). Flip Your Students’ Learning. Educational Leadership, 70(6), 16-20.
Schmidt, S. M. P., Ralph, D. L. (2016). The flipped classroom: A twist on teaching. Contemporary Issues in Higher Education, 9(1).
Simon, L. (2015). Flip the classroom. Education for Primary Care, 26(6), 438-440. doi: 10.1080/14739879.2015.1101854
Velegol, S. B., Zappe, S., & Mahoney, E. (2015). The evolution of a flipped classroom: Evidence-based recommendations. Advances in Engineering Education, 4(3), 1-37.
