"Flipped" Classroom?

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Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

1. Have you flipped your classroom?

2. If so did the students cooperate by doing the pre-requisite study?

3. What % lecture vrs. student directed learning do you employ?

4. When you instituted the changes, what happened to course/faculty evaluations?

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Specializes in Primary Care; Child Advocacy; Child Abuse; ED.

My class hated the flipped classroom but our college just started using it.

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What is a flipped classroom?

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Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

A normal classroom is where the students come in, maybe having read the material or not, but they get a content heavy lecture. Then, they take that content, study it (with or without textbook back-up) and are tested on how much they remember.

A flipped classroom is (theoretically) where the students spend a lot of time teaching themselves the basic material, come to the classroom and the instructor gets them to use their knowledge to discuss case-studies. They learn it before the class, they use the material during the class. More discussion, more group work.

Sometimes the "flipped classroom" is combined with a "ticket to class". This would be a written assignment that they would HAVE to get from the required readings. No homework... not allowed in the classroom.

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Specializes in Education, research, neuro.
What is a flipped classroom?

Yes. That's what my students say. "We aren't paying $50,000 to teach ourselves! That's what we pay YOU for." (Or words to that effect.)

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Specializes in Primary Care; Child Advocacy; Child Abuse; ED.

Yeah we felt like our professor wasn't really teaching and concepts weren't really understandable or at least the way they wanted. A lot of the students barely passed the class, no matter how hard they studied on their own. I think you might as well be in a online class with assignment. It wasn't worth the money.

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Specializes in critical care.

I believe in non-nursing classes, flipped classrooms would be feasible and even enjoyable, especially for a class within a degree program. However, in nursing school, particularly with semesters when skills labs are being used and preclinical hours are required, it is not feasible to do a flipped classroom. Consider the amount of time students reasonably have between classes and clinicals. It's minimal. I've just finished my last semester, and I can tell you that if a professor requested we read a 2-4 page article, we'd do it. But an entire chapter before class? It really wasn't possible, even when we WANTED to. It's a shame, too, because I think I would actually love flipped classrooms for nursing classes.

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Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

It is the "hot, new thing" in nursing education. Lots of pressure on faculty to do it.

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Ok yeah I know what you mean now. We have done that and it is totally a waste of time. No one learns that way, well maybe some do! But for the most part no! I think lecturing and explaining stuff along the way is a better teaching tool than just throwing it out there and saying here ya go with no explanations at all!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.

I'm going to definitely disagree. People do learn that way. It's a waste of time to stand up and lecture for hours. why not spend that time in simulation, interacting with the students, doing things that reinforce the didactic knowledge.

It's hard work for faculty, but it's doable. It's also preparing the students for life as a nurse. Those same students that are complaining about paying $50,000 are also complaining about death by power point. I don't know about you, but It's hard to maintain concentration enough to sit and listen for 8 hours of lectures.

It's also not just about the test, it's about changing students into nurses.

Also whats the difference if they study the material before a lab or after a lecture. It's still the same amount of time. Just changed the order.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I'm going to definitely disagree. People do learn that way. It's a waste of time to stand up and lecture for hours. why not spend that time in simulation, interacting with the students, doing things that reinforce the didactic knowledge.

It's hard work for faculty, but it's doable. It's also preparing the students for life as a nurse. Those same students that are complaining about paying $50,000 are also complaining about death by power point. I don't know about you, but It's hard to maintain concentration enough to sit and listen for 8 hours of lectures.

It's also not just about the test, it's about changing students into nurses.

Also whats the difference if they study the material before a lab or after a lecture. It's still the same amount of time. Just changed the order.

This.

One of my instructors in my PN program taught this way; suffice to say, most of the class had higher averages than then usual lectures; the next effective teachers were the ones who taught the material by using the nursing process.

Glad to see that a "flipped" classroom is being discussed again. As someone who wants to teach eventually, I would love to teach in a "flipped" manner; it would be presented with what information that the students understand; a case study, information about the subject along with nursing process; then time questions about the material; then NCLEX review; I can see that format as a possibility for better prepared students, but then again, just my humble opinion from a student that benefited from "flipped" lectures in my formulative education...

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Specializes in Primary Care; Child Advocacy; Child Abuse; ED.

I have to say it was a waste of time. There was no reason to spend 12 hours studying a class, reading, listen to 3 hour lectures and it is a 2 credit hour class. I am a A student even in our difficult program and as an ambassador to our school I went to the dean and president of our college with two others for our cohort. The way the class was being taught was not helpful and we were spending more time on it then our 8 credit class. To say we complain our 12 hour lecture class because of PowerPoint is false. We complained about the time we wasted listening to lecture on the computer, reading, and the PowerPoints then coming to class to teach our classmates concepts that were obviously wrong. I thank God I answered the questions correctly! The main problem in the class to me is the professor does nothing but grade test and assignments. The book did not come with practice questions and she did not provide us with any. The flip classroom sucks! When we are at clinical we are able to use critical thinking skills, also when we do simulations we are able to read, watch lecture, and do research for the simulation. The flipped classroom if it was not required I would stay away! I came to a brick and motar class to be taught by master prepared professor who loved teaching. Needless to say they had other professors come in and they did not like it either. They are continuing to change the flip classroom. Hopefully they fix it because that was the worst college experience I ever had!

On the other hand the concept seems like our simulation which is an awesome experience. I guess execution was poor...

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