Flipped classrooms at the University of Greenwich: our lecturers discuss

Ah this flipping flip again …  Since Colorado Science teachers Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams sparked excitement and discussions around the flipped classroom in K-12 Education, many educators have pointed out that a similar method has been practised for years at universities, mainly by business, law and humanities, when students were given reading assignments to complete in preparation for the face to face sessions.

In the last few years we have seen case studies and opinion pieces mushrooming all over the world, where educators provide testimony and discuss the merits and challenges in implementing a flipped classroom approach.

The University of Greenwich also embraces flipping and two of our lecturers kindly agreed to hold a podcast chat with us to share their experience and attitude towards flipped learning.  Dr. Tatiana Simmonds (Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture, Computing & Humanities) and Zoe Swan (Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law) have been using flipped classroom approaches in their courses.

In our conversation we talk about:

• How and why they started flipping
• Issues with large groups and examples of the types of activities they tried. One of the tools they talk about is Hot Potatoes
• The challenges of preparing the material for face-to-face sessions
• Ideas on how to prepare engaging advanced content
• Their experience of the first few years, and strategies how to maximise the effectiveness of flipping, bearing in mind time constraints
• Unpacking common misconceptions in relation to flipping and how that affects ways of teaching and lecturers being in control
• How flipping affects problem solving skills
• Statistics and students’ feedback.

Please listen to the full podcast below

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Following from this chat both Tatiana and Zoe surveyed their students to discover their opinions about this type of teaching, specifically looking at how the flipped classroom approach influenced their problem solving skills. The findings were presented during University of Greenwich SHIFT conference in January.  The session was recorded, so keep an eye out for it to be posted here soon.