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This article looks at what it takes for someone to teach effectively in a flipped classroom.

There are news stories and web articles about reverse instruction, or 'flipping the classroom', published just about every day lately. Here's 15 news stories from the last 4 weeks focused on this instructional technology phenomenon. Many of these articles mention 'the flip' in their title (and for every one of these, there have been one or two additional articles that discuss the concept).

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"Everywhere I look I'm seeing 'Flip teaching' or 'Flipped classroom'. There's a lot of hype about this 'flipping' idea and it's getting me flipping irritated. What does flipping actually involve? Does anyone know, or is the term being misused or misrepresented? Even Aaron Sams, a highly visible proponent of the flipped movement admits that the term is ambiguous. This morning, the May issue of Wired Magazine landed on my doormat, and what did I see inside? An article entitled 'University just flipped'. Well, dip me in mayonnaise. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but when you get down to the fundamentals, isn't flipping the classroom a load of old hat? Haven't we been doing it for years?"

The "flipped classroom" was being discussed in social lounges, in conference sessions, on the exhibit floor, on the hashtag and even at dinner. People wanted to know what it was, what it wasn't, how it's done and why it works. Others wanted to sing its praises and often included a vignette about how it works in their classroom and how it transformed learning for their students. Still others railed that the model is nothing transformative at all and that it still emphasizes sage-on-the-stage direct instruction rather than student-centered learning. I engaged in a few of these discussions offline and online, and while I'm still on the fence about my feelings toward the model, I can offer some insight and interpretation."

Flipped classroom teachers almost universally agree that it's not the instructional videos on their own, but how they are integrated into an overall approach, that makes the difference. In his classes, Bergmann says, students can't just "watch the video and be done with it." He checks their notes and requires each student to come to class with a question. And, while he says it takes a little while for students to get used to the system, as the year progresses he sees them asking better questions and thinking more deeply about the content. After flipping his classroom, Bergmann says he can more easily query individual students, probe for misconceptions around scientific concepts, and clear up incorrect notions.

Lots of great resources and examples for flipping your classroom