15 Reasons Why You Should Try the Flipped Classroom Model

In the first part of our series of articles, we discussed the Flipped Classroom model and how it emerged. In this part, we will talk about the reasons why it is the optimal educational solution.

15 Reasons why you should try the Flipped Classroom Model:

The reasons we will list are the results obtained by teachers who applied the flipped classroom model in their classrooms, and felt the right change that they hoped for in their lives as teachers, as well as in the lives of their students.

The reasons are as follows:

1. It helps the teacher adopt the language of today’s student:

This generation of students grew up in the age of the Internet and the various digital and social platforms. They have intelligently used these resources to solve assignments in cooperation with their colleagues and to exchange solutions, as they adapted to digital learning faster than the generations before them.

In any case, the belief the flipped classroom holds is that education should lead to technology, not the other way around. 

2. It helps students who are busy with various hobbies and activities to understand the lessons:

The flipped classroom is characterized by the flexibility that students appreciate because it comforts them.

They no longer have to fear missing lessons to participate in a sports, artistic, or literary competition. On the contrary, this model teaches students valuable and feasible life lessons in time management, and they no longer have to choose either this or that. They now have the option to continue the lessons along with the student activities.

3. It helps students with poor academic achievement:

In a class that applies the traditional model of education, you will find two types of students:

• Few students who interact in the classroom by listening positively to the teacher, participating, asking questions, and providing answers to the teacher’s questions.
• Most of the students who sit in their chairs and interact negatively with their teacher and curious colleagues.

However, the teacher in the flipped classroom is no longer focused only on the outstanding students, but is constantly roaming around all the students to provide support and assistance to those who need it.

4. It helps students excel regardless of their abilities:

Teachers in “special education” classes noticed that students with special needs could replay videos several times whenever they feel the need to learn and understand the material. They also noticed that the frantic rush to take and copy notes from the session in the hope of reading it later at home and understanding it (as in traditional learning) disappeared completely.

According to their parents, they are now doing better at their lessons because the teacher can work with them individually and support them to achieve the educational objectives and finish the assignments they struggle to achieve.

5. Students are allowed to pause and restart lessons whenever they want:

“I can stop you whenever I want,” one student exclaimed when she first saw the videos.

The teachers’ pace may not suit the level of comprehension of all students, so the flipped classroom gives the students the opportunity to play the videos at their own pace and comprehension level, by using the pause and restart button.

On the other hand, other students enjoy watching the same videos twice as fast. They are able to listen to the explanation at a faster speed than their peers, and they find this a better investment of their time rather than the boredom they experience when listening directly to the explanation from the teacher in the traditional model.

6. It enhances the interaction between the student and the teacher:

The Flipped Classroom model does not promote online learning. On the contrary, it gives the teacher the opportunity to teach using the technological tools available on the Internet, while maintaining the interaction between the teacher and the students.

As the students spend time utilizing technology at home, the teacher has more time to interact and communicate with the students in class. Thus, they play an active role in the lives of their students, who gain invaluable experience by interacting directly with their teachers.

7. It allows teachers to get to know their students better:

Teachers know that their daily task at school is not an easy one. They inspire and encourage their students by listening to them and providing them with everything they need in order to clarify their visions for the future, point out the strengths and weaknesses of their skills and daily performances, and bring out their special qualities. All of that is done within a framework that strengthens the relationship between the teacher and the student, and gives students role models who have positive and fruitful roles in their lives.

When you allow students to contact you via text messages, emails, or social media platforms, you enhance the interaction between you and your students since the point of communication is usually related to answering educational questions. However, over time you will find that your relationship has become stronger, and that students start to seek your help and guidance in other areas of life in which they face challenges.

8. It enhances the communication between the student and the teacher:

The greatest benefit the Flipped Classroom model offers is the increased communication between the teacher and the student because it changes the teacher’s role from a content provider to a learning trainer who spends their time talking with students, answering their questions, dividing them into small groups they can work with, and guiding them by working with each student individually. It also allows the teacher to observe the students interacting and communicating with each other, so the students could develop themselves, grow their cooperative groups, and help each other in learning instead of relying on the teacher.

This model succeeded in developing a culture of learning among students, by turning learning into a goal instead of focusing on completing assignments and duties. By doing this, the teacher shows respect for the students and their minds, and the students show their teachers respect and appreciation for giving them the opportunity to show their potential, share their ideas, and interact with their colleagues.

Know that when your goal is to make your students better learners and to support them for a true understanding of scientific content, students will understand that you are on their side and will respond to you with a better performance.

9. It allows for true uniqueness of education style:

The Flipped Classroom model is a solution for students at all levels – whether those excelling, those with average abilities, or low-performers – to reach an outstanding level in the abilities they acquire because they realize they have to demonstrate that they understood the content that was presented, explained, and discussed.

For students with an excellent speed of comprehension, the teacher tends to reduce the number of problems that they need to solve. However, for those who encounter difficulty or trouble in academic achievement, the teacher focuses on finding the best sources and mechanisms of understanding for them, by modifying their performance or asking them to answer questions about key ideas without drowning in the additional details that may cause them ambiguity or confusion.

As each student prefers a different learning method, traditional teachers face the challenge of teaching a class of 25 to 30 students in a way that suits each of them, which is considered impossible. However, flipped classrooms provide learners with many options and give each student the freedom to speed up or slow down their pace according to their need and understanding of the content they are receiving. The teacher is also able to use the class time to answer students’ questions and the problems they find difficult to understand and solve, which is positively reflected on their performance in oral and written exams at the end of the semester, as well as on their educational performance in general.

10. It changes the classroom management style:

Teachers are challenged in the traditional model with some students who choose to deliberately not pay attention to the explanation. They become a distraction for the rest of the class and have a negative impact on the learning of everyone in their group. They are often bored or unruly.

The same teachers are astonished when they switch to managing a flipped classroom. Many of the administrative problems which occur in the classroom will disappear, and they won’t have students who love attention and look for an audience since class time is used mainly for students doing manual activities, or working in small groups. Those students will willingly dive into the depths of the learning process.

But despite this, the teacher still has a role in guiding students who need to improve, modify, and increase their performance in the classroom.

11. It is a way of communicating with parents:

Every teacher knows that encounters with parents often focus on how well their children behave in class, so you find them answering questions such as: Does my child sit quietly? Do they behave respectfully? Do they raise their hand before speaking? Do they bother the teacher or their classmates?

Undoubtedly, this interest on the part of parents is good, but they no longer need to ask teachers such questions in the inverted classroom model because students come to class with a focus on learning.

Parents’ will ask instead whether their child is getting the education they want. If not, they automatically ask: “What can we do to help them learn?” making the encounter richer and more valuable, as it focuses on helping their children and understanding how they learn to become better learners.

Parents will realize through discussions that the reasons may be related to the missing academic background in previous years, or to personal issues that may hinder and interfere with the learning process, or perhaps the student’s interest in extra-curricular activities is greater than their interest in academic achievement. However, once the parent and teacher diagnose the cause, the necessary remedial interventions can be taken by the teacher, with the support and participation of the parents.

12. It educates parents:

Many Flipped Classroom teachers were surprised when parents commented that they liked the videos made for their children. Upon investigation, the teachers found that many of them constantly watch these videos with their children and learn from them, which leads to interesting conversations between children and parents about the material at hand. 

13. It makes the class more transparent:

Society in our time does not know what happens inside the classroom, nor how our children learn. However, the flipped classroom opens its doors and lets the public in by sending home the videos recorded by the teachers themselves, so that parents can access and watch them so they don’t have to wonder about what their children are going through in the classroom.

This has helped raise parents’ confidence in the quality of education in schools that implement the flipped classroom model, which has contributed to reducing the likelihood of students moving to other schools. These clips also attracted students from other schools, as parents began to view them as having a high academic level.

14. It’s a great technique when a teacher is absent:

It is difficult for schools in some areas to contract qualified substitute teachers. However, the pre-recorded videos by the teacher can contribute to the continuous learning of students even at times when it is difficult for teachers to be present at school due to their illness, participation in a conference, or any emergency.

In this way, the students do not have to stop working on the curriculum despite the absence of the teacher. They can get the same lesson on the appointed day without being affected by the teacher’s absence. Since the teacher records these videos in the way they choose, they do not have to re-teach or explain them again upon their return to school.

This technique has earned teachers’ appreciation because it enables students to understand what the teacher would have wanted them to understand if they were in class, and makes the videos substitute plans if the teacher is absent for whatever reasons or circumstances they encounter.

15. It can lead to a learning mastery program:

This is the next stage that Jonathan and Aaron led to make sure that students don’t memorize their lessons just in order to pass exams.

The idea of the video library came to provide videos of all concepts related to chemistry through a YouTube channel, where students can access and watch them along with the clips dedicated to the current curriculum, with the aim of mastering chemical concepts and finishing the curriculum with a deep understanding.

In conclusion:

These were the most important points of the second part of our series of articles. In the third and final part of this series, we will discuss the conditions for the success of the Flipped Classroom model and the mechanisms used in it.