In the 2012-2013 school year, the Las Virgenes Unified School District implemented the Inverted Classroom Method in hopes of improving student education through the use of at-home technology. The purpose of the Inverted Classroom Method is for students to learn the material that would normally be taught in class at home and come to class ready to participate using the new information they learned the night before. Although the flipped classroom may save more time in class for other activities, the reality is that this method negatively affects the student by the lack of teacher-to-student communication and interaction during the learning process. Not all students have the time to learn outside of class because of extracurricular activities, sports games and other outside of school priorities.
Numerous students within the CHS community feel that they have less of a chance of grasping the full concept of a lesson because they do not have their teacher there to guide them through material that may confuse them. A student cannot simply raise his hand for clarification during a lesson he or she is learning at home, but instead can only rewind the lesson he or she is watching. To some, the teacher-to-student interaction is vital in the learning process because some students need extra assistance comprehending complex lessons. In short, the at-home teaching videos via the Kahn Academy YouTube channel does not compare to the atmosphere and learning environment of a traditional classroom.
“While [the flipped] method of teaching works for some learners, many others thrive with a model that takes a more constructivist approach,” said Lisa Nielsen, former public school teacher and author of the book Teaching Generation Text, on her blog The Innovative Educator.
Many students participating in activities outside of school, such as sports and clubs, will also find balancing their activities difficult when they have to teach themselves at home. Some students do not get home until much later in the evening, whether they be returning home from away games or coming back from a lengthy club fundraiser. Consequently, fitting an extra hour or so to learn and understand a new lesson that could have been taught during school is very challenging.
“One of the major problems I see with the [inverted classroom method] is the fact that a majority of the learning will be done at home on [the student’s] free time,” said junior Rachel Bastian. “There [are] a lot of things I wanted to do this year that I had to drop in order to keep up with all my Honors and AP courses that follow the inverted classroom method.”
In general, the majority of students at CHS do not enjoy having to take home their lessons and learn them from a video link online. Not only does the flipped method interrupt the way students learn but it also defeats the purpose of having a teacher in the first place.
