Summary: The Flipped Classroom Model

The nature of providing education in the midst of the exponential growth of the modern era necessitates the embrace of innovative and meaningful pedagogical philosophies. As the understanding of educational psychology becomes more involved in the movements of the everyday classroom, it is pertinent to maintain an open-minded and reflective perspective upon our discourses within the classroom. Such perspectives lead us to question the nature of the classroom model itself, and its many benefits and detriments and lead us to consider a different model for facilitating meaningful learning for our scholastic benefactors. For this reason, a consideration of the ‘flipped classroom’ model may be beneficial for providing students with the rich education

The fundamental principles upon which constructivism is implemented are active learning, social interaction, and self-regulation (Duchesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013). Active learning, as well as active participation, focuses upon the ideal of ‘learning by doing’ in a classroom context (Duchesne et al., 2013). In this regard, the ‘flipped classroom’ provides the chance for students to decide when and where they may listen to online instruction, as well as providing extra classroom time for more practical implementation of the course material (Flumerfelt & Green, 2013). Since what is taught is not necessarily what is learned by the student, especially due to the myriad skills and experiences that shape a student’s learning model (Churchill et al., 2013), the extra classroom time and subsequent increase in teacher/student interaction allows the teacher to correct any misinterpretations of the content (Tucker, 2012; Horn, 2013; Fulton, 2012; Roehl, Reddy & Shannon,

Miller (2012) suggests that creating a ‘need to know’ mentality through use of an established pedagogical model is the best discourse for implementing a ‘flipped classroom’ (para. 3-4). Miller (2012) also mention the relevant concerns of technology, and it availability (para. 5). One of the greatest detractors from the ‘flipped classroom’ model is the lack of home computer access for some students (Roehl et al., 2013; Kachka, 2012; Nielsen, 2012; Fulton, 2012), something which needs to be addressed to ensure the efficacy of the ‘flipped classroom’ model. However, this may be of small concern in the digital age, in which the ‘Millennial’ generation have a preference for the use of technology to enhance traditional learning (Lage et al., 2000). Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) are a large part of the current generation’s lifestyle, and include such modern-world aspects as constant connection to information, as well as connectedness to sociability (Roehl et al., 2013). Considerations such as these highlight the fact that teachers should be aware of the benefits of implementing ICT use and multimodality into the curriculum. Prensky (2001) points out that: “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” (para. 1). As teachers, we can