Reasons why my students enjoy flipped learning

Reasons why my students enjoy flipped learning

Authored by: Todd Nesloney

The idea of the flipped classroom is great, but if you aren’t interesting your students and getting them excited about their learning then it doesn’t really matter! Here are my top three reasons my students enjoy flipped learning:

1. I can work ahead! - Many of my students (even ones I would have never expected!) have expressed how much they like feeling like they’re in control of their learning. How do they do that? I allow my students to work ahead of where we are in class. Giving my students that opportunity they feel like they’re in charge of their learning and quite a few of them take advantage of the opportunity to “learn faster” than the rest of their peers.

2. I actually know what I’m doing - One complaint that I’ve always noticed about traditional homework is that the students who need the homework the most are the ones who don’t really know how to do the work to begin with. What happens? The kids take home work that only further frustrates them and makes them like the subject even less. With traditional homework being replaced by videos and a WSQ/KWL, students now express how much more they don’t mind doing it because they actually understand what they’re doing. Does that mean after watching the video that they’ve then mastered the skill at hand? NO WAY! But it builds a great foundation to work on when they get back to class.

3. My Parents can actually help me now! - This one is one I’ve heard from both students AND parents! In years past I would always hear the comment from parents of “I graduated so many years ago and you do things so differently, I don’t know how to help my child”. Now because of flipping my classroom and providing all the instruction via videos, parents/guardians can now watch the videos WITH their child and gain some understanding of the topic so they can help at home too! It helps alleviate any stress that may come from not remembering a particular subject from when the adults were in school!

I could honestly sit and list about 10 other reasons why my students prefer the flipped classroom model to traditional teaching, but the three above are by far the most popular reasons my students gave me for why they loved being a part of a flipped classroom.