COETAIL--EFL Flipped Classroom Thoughts
Another post toward obtaining my Certificate in Educational Technology and Information Literacy (COETAIL)
These days we often hear and read about the merits of the flipped classroom or reverse instruction--the notion of putting lectures or course content on video for students to view at home or at school at their own pace, thus freeing up class time for doing "home"work and mastery exercises. See the infographic The Flipped Classroom Defined and Flipping the Classroom from Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching. Flipped classroom and reverse instruction methods invert the traditional lecture-based teaching model.
In Japanese universities, the lecture is alive and well, so my non-lecture courses have always been, like those of many other native-speaking language teachers, radically different from the norm. I'm pleased to see Japanese universities [slowly] evolving and more academics adopting alternative teaching methodology and techniques.
How does reverse instruction apply to my EFL content-based university classes focused on creative writing, literature, American culture and global issues, which, like many humanities courses, have actually always been "flipped" highly interactive classes that were never lecture classes to begin with? In many of my courses, students gain first exposure to content through readings completed (theoretically!) prior to class, and class time is for interaction with classmates via discussion or debate, group tasks, prewriting or editing, and interaction with me. The question becomes, then, how might I inject more reverse instruction into my courses? How might I enhance what I do by placing more class materials online?
My university classes meet only once a week, which for language learning is not ideal. Consequently, an important benefit to instructors putting more course content online is that students can view course material again and again, giving them additional listening reinforcement opportunities during the week outside of class. My EFL classes are made up of students with widely ranging abilities in English. Though all have scored over a 600 in the TOEIC test (or the equivalent in TOEFL), some have had little opportunity to actively interact in English; the more content available to them online for previewing or reviewing, the better prepared they will be to actively participate in class.
My students don't usually bring devices other than smart phones into my university classes, and since I teach at a public university, not all students even own computers. However, they all have access to computers in computer labs at the university, so in the last couple years, I have been using WikiSpaces for organizing materials in some of my classes. Initially I did this to cut down on copying, but I quickly realized the Wiki also enables me to share links to readings, videos and audio recordings that can be viewed outside class or in the language lab (occasionally I can reserve it for a class), and also offers options for classmates to interact outside class through comment posts in discussion boards.
To allow for more reverse instruction in which students take more control of their learning, I aim to create WikiSpaces Sites or Google Sites and Docs for each class, move more material online and create content libraries for each class. In my writing classes, I'd like to create screencast tutorials to, for example, illustrate ways to avoid some basic common grammar errors that Japanese EFL writers often fall into, or to demonstrate the use of the Tab key and other formatting tips students may not have learned as they start writing their stories or essays. Video tutorials would save me having to repeat the basic stuff again and again.
I would also like to develop reference libraries and reading links for each course to provide more depth and ample extended opportunities for motivated eager students.
I hope to create some interactive PowerPoints for the Global Issues and American Culture courses to inspire more active directed discussion in class, and the techniques in this video might be applied to some of the material for my classes (though, sigh, I don't have interactive smartboards).
In each of my classes, I can think of ways to move more material online which will leave more class time for the interactive work and individual attention from me, their teacher. More online material directly related to my courses will certainly enable students to take more control of their learning.
Is this flipping? Is this reverse instruction? Perhaps. But I think of it more as an almost sculptural sort of enhancement or refinement of my courses.
Will my university students in my already interactive and quite flipped classrooms take advantage of more material online? Judging from reactions to the Wiki sites I've created thus far, many will. Some won't--those that spend little time on homework anyway or those without a computer at home. And some will still expect to be allowed to be passive students sitting at the back of the classroom nodding off while a teacher lectures. But generally those students either adapt quickly or disappear altogether from my classes. Most of my students in Japan are thirsty for more content and crave more active engagement in class. And no one, after the first day, is allowed to sit in the back of my classroom anyway!
These days we often hear and read about the merits of the flipped classroom or reverse instruction--the notion of putting lectures or course content on video for students to view at home or at school at their own pace, thus freeing up class time for doing "home"work and mastery exercises. See the infographic The Flipped Classroom Defined and Flipping the Classroom from Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching. Flipped classroom and reverse instruction methods invert the traditional lecture-based teaching model.
In Japanese universities, the lecture is alive and well, so my non-lecture courses have always been, like those of many other native-speaking language teachers, radically different from the norm. I'm pleased to see Japanese universities [slowly] evolving and more academics adopting alternative teaching methodology and techniques.
How does reverse instruction apply to my EFL content-based university classes focused on creative writing, literature, American culture and global issues, which, like many humanities courses, have actually always been "flipped" highly interactive classes that were never lecture classes to begin with? In many of my courses, students gain first exposure to content through readings completed (theoretically!) prior to class, and class time is for interaction with classmates via discussion or debate, group tasks, prewriting or editing, and interaction with me. The question becomes, then, how might I inject more reverse instruction into my courses? How might I enhance what I do by placing more class materials online?
My university classes meet only once a week, which for language learning is not ideal. Consequently, an important benefit to instructors putting more course content online is that students can view course material again and again, giving them additional listening reinforcement opportunities during the week outside of class. My EFL classes are made up of students with widely ranging abilities in English. Though all have scored over a 600 in the TOEIC test (or the equivalent in TOEFL), some have had little opportunity to actively interact in English; the more content available to them online for previewing or reviewing, the better prepared they will be to actively participate in class.
My students don't usually bring devices other than smart phones into my university classes, and since I teach at a public university, not all students even own computers. However, they all have access to computers in computer labs at the university, so in the last couple years, I have been using WikiSpaces for organizing materials in some of my classes. Initially I did this to cut down on copying, but I quickly realized the Wiki also enables me to share links to readings, videos and audio recordings that can be viewed outside class or in the language lab (occasionally I can reserve it for a class), and also offers options for classmates to interact outside class through comment posts in discussion boards.
To allow for more reverse instruction in which students take more control of their learning, I aim to create WikiSpaces Sites or Google Sites and Docs for each class, move more material online and create content libraries for each class. In my writing classes, I'd like to create screencast tutorials to, for example, illustrate ways to avoid some basic common grammar errors that Japanese EFL writers often fall into, or to demonstrate the use of the Tab key and other formatting tips students may not have learned as they start writing their stories or essays. Video tutorials would save me having to repeat the basic stuff again and again.
I would also like to develop reference libraries and reading links for each course to provide more depth and ample extended opportunities for motivated eager students.
I hope to create some interactive PowerPoints for the Global Issues and American Culture courses to inspire more active directed discussion in class, and the techniques in this video might be applied to some of the material for my classes (though, sigh, I don't have interactive smartboards).
In each of my classes, I can think of ways to move more material online which will leave more class time for the interactive work and individual attention from me, their teacher. More online material directly related to my courses will certainly enable students to take more control of their learning.
Is this flipping? Is this reverse instruction? Perhaps. But I think of it more as an almost sculptural sort of enhancement or refinement of my courses.
Will my university students in my already interactive and quite flipped classrooms take advantage of more material online? Judging from reactions to the Wiki sites I've created thus far, many will. Some won't--those that spend little time on homework anyway or those without a computer at home. And some will still expect to be allowed to be passive students sitting at the back of the classroom nodding off while a teacher lectures. But generally those students either adapt quickly or disappear altogether from my classes. Most of my students in Japan are thirsty for more content and crave more active engagement in class. And no one, after the first day, is allowed to sit in the back of my classroom anyway!
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