Flipped Classroom Controversy

What’s the best use of time in the classroom?” Is it delivering face to face lectures to your students? Or is it doing hands on activities and homework where your students are able to ask questions? This educational controversy is known as the Traditional vs. Flipped Classroom debate (Gobry.) I will argue that the flipped classroom method should be implemented into school classrooms because of the increased one on one time for students and teachers, its benefits during absences, and because students can guide their own learning.

The traditional classroom is what most have us have experienced where we are lectured by our teacher during class and we do homework outside of class. The flipped classroom method, however, is the complete opposite of the traditional classroom which is

Flipped classrooms rely on technology because teachers must record themselves teaching the lecture and post the videos online for students to access. It then becomes the responsibility of the student to watch the lecture and take the time to comprehend the information. This method “enables educators to make the shift from teacher driven instruction to student-centered learning” (Hamdan et al. 4.) The teacher’s role is very important as they plan the class’ aspects but the success of a flipped classroom, however, depends on the student’s ability to take control of their learning. Many people have strong opinions about both sides of the debate causing strong controversy amongst educators. Even though the flipped model is relatively recent, there is quantitative and qualitative research available supporting the key aspects of the flipped model (Hamdan et al. 6.) Hopefully with more classrooms using this method, we will have more scientific evidence supporting the use of a flipped