By Kelly Quach

Staff Writer

  Teaching isn’t easy, especially when each student learns at their own pace. Some students are able to fully grasp a concept after one lecture, but others need the teacher to repeat the lesson multiple times.   

  Flipped classroom was introduced to the world in the mid-2000s and is a teaching method where students are able to go home and retain the information on their own. Despite being a fairly new way of teaching, flipped learning is efficient because it allows students to learn at their own pace, access lessons at home, and ask in-depth questions in class.

  Many educators have already taken the opportunity to test the strategy out. According to a survey conducted by LearnDash, “in 2012, 48% of teachers flipped at least one lesson, in 2014, it was up to 78% and 96% of teachers who flipped the lesson would recommend the method to others.”  

  At Gabrielino, high school math teacher Mark Mikasa, and science teacher  Kevin McClure implemented flipped classroom into their curriculum.

  When done properly, the method has been proven to be effective.

  Teacher and administrator James Szoke performed research at a rural secondary school district and compared the effectiveness of a lecture delivery model and the flipped classroom model. “The percentage of students in the flipped learning class receiving an A for the second semester was 50% whereas the percentage of students in the traditional class receiving an A was 39%,” stated Szoke.

  Flipped learning promotes collaboration and allows for one-on-one conversations with the teacher in the classroom. Before, teachers would spend the entire class time teaching a lesson. Now, students are able to learn on their own at home and can write down any questions they need to ask in class. Students also have time to collaborate with their classmates through projects and discussions.

  Results from a Partial Flipped Classed Pilot report that “94% of students responded that they liked this approach to learning and 72% indicated that this approach “Helped [them] learn the material better.”

  “Flipped classroom has helped me cut down on the workload at home,” commented Junior Tyler Yang.

  Missing class used to be a problem for students because they would miss out on lessons and assignments. Flipped classroom provides a solution by allowing students to learn and work from home.

  In addition, Parents are also able to access their children’s video lectures, helping them better understand the lessons their children are learning.

   There is no doubt that flipped classroom is the answer to future learning. Not only does the method allow students to control their learning process, but it also provides transparency for parents and enables teachers to provide in-depth explanations in class.