Flip Your Classroom

“The Flipped Classroom”

Enrique cannot keep up with his teachers. They speak too fast for him. He can’t take notes quickly enough to follow their lectures. He works hard but isn’t learning. Janice is a busy student-athlete. She runs track, and plays basketball and volleyball for her high school. She works hard also but is falling behind her classmates because of her busy schedule. Rural students who participate in athletics often spend hours on buses traveling to so-called “nearby” games and miss many classes while on the road. Naturally, despite their best intentions and hard work, they fall behind. On the surface, Ashley seems a perfect student. She does everything her teachers ask and gets good grades. However, she simply goes through the motions and is not learning anything other than how to manipulate the educational system.

These stories are distressingly typical. Many high school students struggle to learn and want to learn, but various circumstances – often outside of their control – get in the way. How can schools help them learn more effectively? The flipped classroom, with its focus on students and not teachers, is the answer. Utilizing this approach, teachers...