A new way of thinking: Inverting the classroom

For at least some of us in the TCH program, this last year or two has caused us to re-think our traditional notions of teacher's roles in the classroom. Personally, outside of my journalism classes in college, every teacher I've had has taught the same way: lecture from the front of the class, assign readings and homework from a textbook and assess learning with an end-of-the-unit test, quizzes and a big paper or two. That's how I envisioned myself as a teacher. Reading about the different educational philosophies and some of the innovative classroom methods being used today has certainly caused me to reconsider my own teaching philosophy. Reading the Journal of Economic Education article "Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment" by Maureen J. Lage, Glenn J. Platt, and Michael Treglia has again given me pause.

As the article points out, teachers have traditionally crafted their lessons to appeal to dependent learners. The tendency is to think of dependent learners as sheep, who need to a great deal of guidance to understand the material being taught. In essence, the teacher acts as a shepherd leading his or her pupils to this promised land of knowledge, and the students who veer off course and fail to follow directions will never get there. The authors argue that while focusing solely on this kind of teaching may work with some students, others need a different approach and that educators need to adopt a variety of different classroom teaching methods to reach the greatest number of students.

Inverting the classroom is one way of doing this, and it is a revolutionary idea. To take activities normally reserved for the classroom only and offer them in arenas outside the classroom is a concept that is foreign to many of us potential educators, as is the opposite idea. There's something to be said for shaking up classroom routines, but that's not really what's being advocated by the article's authors. There are educational advantages to adopting this inverted classroom method.

In the Miami University experiment regarding economics classes, lecture material was made available for students to pore over at home. The next day, class started with a 10-minute period for student questions, leading to what the authors called a "mini-lecture." Once that session was over, students participated in experiments and collaborative projects designed to cultivate an understanding of different economic concepts. And material was delivered in a variety of ways, including videos and Internet research. Researchers found out that students enjoyed working with their peers and that they felt they were able to take more ownership of their own education. This led to increased motivation. At the same time, students didn't feel this teaching method made the class any easier. In fact, they felt they worked harder.

There is real educational value to inverting the classroom. It's not just change for change's sake. This method seems to awaken in students a real desire to learn. More than that, however, teachers in this brave new world of education are bound to help every student they teach reach their potential. And so, they must consider using different teaching methods in the classroom that match the learning styles of each of their students. In turn, students are not only encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning, but this way of teaching makes it absolutely necessary that they do.

One concern people have with this method is that somehow course coverage will suffer, and while the researchers found this wasn't the case, it would seem that teachers putting the inverted classroom into practice will have to be creative to address all facets of the subject they think are important. And while in this particular study, the inverted classroom was especially helpful for female students, who seemed to enjoy the collaborative nature of this new teaching method, I can't help thinking that for any subject, the issue of gender won't be much of an issue. The students who enjoy collaboration and in-class projects will get a lot of out of it, while those who aren't inclined to do well in this environment may take to more traditional lessons. The teacher who employs different styles should be more successful in dealing with every type of student in his or her class.