There is increasing pressure for Higher Education institutions to undergo transformation, with education being seen as needing to adapt in ways that meet the conceptual needs of our time. Reflecting this is the rise of the flipped or inverted classroom. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant research regarding the emergence of the flipped classroom and the links to pedagogy and educational outcomes, identifying any gaps in the literature which could inform future design and evaluation. The scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework Arksey and O'Malley. The results indicate that there is much indirect evidence emerging of improved academic performance and student and staff satisfaction with the flipped approach but a paucity of conclusive evidence that it contributes to building lifelong learning and other 21st Century skills in under-graduate education and post-graduate education.

The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review

This study presents a large-scale systematic review of the literature on the flipped classroom, with the goals of examining its reported advantages and challenges for both students and instructors, and to note potentially useful areas of future research on the flipped model's in and out-of-class activities. The full range of Social Sciences Citation Indexed journals was surveyed through the Web of Science site, and a total of 71 research articles were selected for the review. The findings reveal that the most frequently reported advantage of the flipped classroom is the improvement of student learning performance. We also found a number of challenges in this model. The majority of these are related to out-of-class activities, such as much reported inadequate student preparation prior to class. Several other challenges and the numerous advantages of the flipped classroom are discussed in detail. We then offer suggestions for future research on flipped model activities.

The flipped classroom: A review of its advantages and challenges

This paper describes a structured attempt to integrate flip teaching into language classrooms using a WebQuest active learning strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the possible impacts of flipping the classroom on English language learners’ academic performance, learning attitudes, and participation levels. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, three different formats for flip teaching were developed in this study. The results indicate that the structured and semi-structured flip lessons were more effective instructional designs than the non-flip lessons. With a varying extent, both the structured and semi-structured flip lessons helped the students attain better learning outcomes, develop better attitudes toward their learning experiences, and devote more effort in the learning process. Given the positive results, this paper concludes with a call for more research into this promising pedagogy to contribute to its knowledge base across disciplines.

Flipping the Classroom for English Language Learners to Foster Active Learning

The flipped learning model, which "flips" traditional in-class lectures with collaborative activities, has gained many followers and converts in K-12 education. However, a review of previous studies shows that the flipped model is still underutilized and underexplored in the higher education context. Research and design models for flipped learning in higher education are also insufficient. This study attempts to fill this gap by developing a model that can provide a foundation for further research and practice for flipped learning in higher education. Building from the four pillars of F-L-I-P? (Flexible Environments, Learning Culture, Intentional Content, and Professional Educators), the proposed research and design model named "FLIPPED" adds three extra letters-P-E-D (Progressive Activities, Engaging Experiences, and Diversified Platforms)-to the F-L-I-P? acronym. This model was implemented in a "Holistic Flipped Classroom" environment and evaluated based on a student survey, interviews, and an analysis of computer system logs. Findings demonstrated that the proposed model was effective; students reported that they were satisfied with the course, their attendance improved, and their study efforts increased. Results also suggested that the transactional distance changed during the learning process: highly motivated students performed much better than less motivated students. However, some students retained their former passive learning habits, and this resulted in an obstruction to full adoption. Reflections on the achievements and challenges of the "FLIPPED" model have culminated in various examples, guidelines, and suggestions for practitioners as they consider their own design, implementation, and adoption.1 Develops the FLIPPED research & design model for higher education.Uses the Holistic Flipped Classroom approach to implement the model.Research was conducted using a survey, interviews, and system log analysis.Identifies challenges and problems during the implementation.Provides strategies, examples, and guidelines for future practitioners.

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Is FLIP enough? Or should we use the FLIPPED model instead?

The flipped classroom has been recognized by educators as an innovative and effective instructional approach. It totally overthrows traditional instruction by switching in-class instruction time with at-home practicing time. While the effectiveness of the flipped room has been identified, the challenges of applying it to school settings have also been pointed out, such as the need for effective in-class learning designs and the necessity of helping students learn across at-home and in-school contexts. In this paper, the challenges as well as the definition, characteristics, and educational objectives of flipped learning are introduced; moreover, the seamless flipped learning model is proposed by integrating the features of mobile and wireless communication technologies into the flipped classroom model to provide a guide for researchers and educators to develop effective flipped learning activities and plans for helping students learn seamlessly across contexts.

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Seamless flipped learning: a mobile technology-enhanced flipped classroom with effective learning strategies

Four years ago, in the shadow of Colorado's Pike's Peak, veteran Woodland Park High School chemistry teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams stumbled onto an idea. Struggling to find the time to reteach lessons for absent students, they plunked down $50, bought software that allowed them to record and annotate lessons, and posted them online. Absent students appreciated the opportunity to see what they missed. But, surprisingly, so did students who hadn't missed class. They, too, used the online material, mostly to review and reinforce classroom lessons. And, soon, Bergmann and Sams realized they had the opportunity to radically rethink how they used class time. It's called "the flipped classroom." While there is no one model, the core idea is to flip the common instructional approach: With teacher-created videos and interactive lessons, instruction that used to occur in class is now accessed at home, in advance of class. Class becomes the place to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning. Most importantly, all aspects of instruction can be rethought to best maximize the scarcest learning resource--time. 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. Counterintuitively, Bergmann says the most important benefits of the video lessons are profoundly human: "I now have time to work individually with students. I talk to every student in every classroom every day." Traditional classroom interactions are also flipped. Typically, the most outgoing and engaged students ask questions, while struggling students may act out Bergmann notes that he now spends more time with struggling students, who no longer give up on homework, but work through challenging problems in class. Advanced students have more freedom to learn independently. And, while high-school students still occasionally lapse on homework assignments, Bergmann credits the new arrangement with fostering better relationships, greater student engagement, and higher levels of motivation. Once Bergmann's and Sams's lessons were posted online, it wasn't long before other students and teachers across the country were using the lessons, and making their own. Across the country in Washington, D.C, Andrea Smith, a 6th-grade math teacher at E. L. Haynes, a high-performing public charter school, shares Bergmann's enthusiasm, but focuses on a different aspect of the flipped classroom. Smith, who has taught for more than a decade in both D.C.'s public charter and traditional district schools, immediately saw the benefit for students, but says she was most captivated by the opportunity to elevate teaching practice and the profession as a whole. As Smith explains, crafting a great four- to six-minute video lesson poses a tremendous instructional challenge: how to explain a concept in a clear, concise, bite-sized chunk. Creating her own videos forces her to pay attention to the details and nuances of instruction--the pace, the examples used, the visual representation, and the development of aligned assessment practices. In a video lesson on dividing fractions, for example, Smith is careful not to just teach the procedure--multiply by the inverse--but also to represent the important underlying conceptual ideas. …

The Flipped Classroom: Online Instruction at Home Frees Class Time for Learning

Beyond the Bubble: Technology and the Future of Student Assessment.

Advocates for virtual education say that it has the power to transform an archaic K-12 system of schooling. Instead of blackboards, schoolhouses, and a six-hour school day, interactive technology will personalize learning to meet each student's needs, ensure all students have access to quality teaching, extend learning opportunities to all hours of the day and all days of the week, and innovate and improve over time. Indeed, virtual education has the potential not only to help solve many of the most pressing issues in K-12 education, but to do so in a cost-effective manner. More than 1 million public-education students now take online courses, and as more districts and states initiate and expand online offerings, the numbers continue to grow. But to date, there's little research or publicly available data on the outcomes from K-12 online learning. And even when data are publicly available, as is the case with virtual charter schools, analysts and education officials have paid scant attention to--and have few tools for analyzing--performance. Until policymakers, educators, and advocates pay as much attention to quality as they do to expansion, virtual education will not be ready for a lead role in education reform. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Virtual education is in a period of rapid growth, as school districts, for-profit providers, and nonprofit start-ups all move into the online learning world. (See sidebars for just a few examples.) But without rigorous oversight, a thousand flowers blooming will also yield a lot of weeds. Real accountability, including the means to identify and end ineffective practices and programs, must be constantly balanced with the time required to refine new, immature technologies and approaches to learning. Both virtual education advocates and education policymakers should learn from nearly two decades of experience with charter schooling, another reform movement predicated on innovation and change within public education. After nearly 20 years of practice, the charter school movement provides important lessons on how to ensure that improved student outcomes remain the top priority. Focus on Outcomes At present, virtual education lacks a firm understanding of what high performance looks like. The situation is not unlike that faced by the charter school movement just a few years ago. In 2005, after a decade of rapid growth in the charter school sector, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) was formed to increase the availability of high-quality charter schools. NAPCS soon published "Renewing the Compact," a statement by its Task Force on Charter School Quality and Accountability. "Renewing the Compact" came on the heels of an August 17, 2004, lead story in the New York Times, which highlighted findings from a simplistic, and controversial, study of charter school achievement sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, "Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)." According to the Times, in "virtually every instance, the charter students did worse than their counterparts in regular public schools." The NAPCS task force did not mince words about the need for a sharper focus on quality within the charter school movement. The report challenged the charter community to "fully 'own' the issue of how well its schools perform" and also challenged charter advocates "to embrace rigorous measures of quality and accountability for our own schools' success." But the wide range of education options within charter schooling makes "owning" quality difficult, and the variety is even greater for virtual education. Virtual public education can be delivered by all types of providers, including charter schools, for-profit companies, universities, state entities, and school districts. Types of online schools and programs range from state-run programs like Florida Virtual School, where each year 100,000 students take one or two courses online as a supplement to traditional schools, to "blended" models, which allow schools to combine online and classroom-based instruction. …

Lessons for Online Learning: Charter Schools' Successes and Mistakes Have a Lot to Teach Virtual Educators

The Next Generation of Testing

Education reform often appears a zero-sum battle, one that pits crusaders demanding accountability and choice against much of the traditional education establishment, including teachers unions. The political skirmishes in Florida, including court fights over vouchers and charter schools, and ongoing struggles over a parade of different merit pay plans for teachers, give credence to the standard portrayal. But state-run Florida Virtual School (FLVS), a decade-old public education experiment, departs from this conventional script. This most radical of choice-based schools--where students and teachers never meet in physical classrooms and state funding flows on a performance-based, demand-driven model--has largely avoided the political and legal tangles that have stymied other reform efforts. And, free from the geographic constraints and facilities costs of traditional schools, FLVS has grown rapidly, scaling up to match the considerable demand for the school's courses. In the 2008-09 school year, approximately 84,000 students will complete 168,000 half-credit courses, a 10-fold increase since 2002-03. To accomplish this rare feat, the school has adroitly walked a fine line. It has built a distinct educational philosophy, approach, and culture. At the same time, it has maintained its identity as a public school and remains part of the system. This unique positioning, far enough outside to do business in a different way yet sufficiently inside the system to avoid political backlash, has been a key element in the school's success. Mark Pudlow, spokesperson for the Florida Education Association, the teachers union that has fought pitched battles against many of Florida's recent initiatives, acknowledges the result of Florida Virtual School's approach: "[It] never developed the kind of mistrust that tends to be associated with other reform ideas." Savvy leadership, strong political support, and a series of well-timed decisions around growth have helped FLVS become the country's most successful virtual school, and perhaps one of its most important reform stories as well. School on Demand FLVS is a supplemental virtual school: most students attend brick-and-mortar schools and take FLVS courses in addition to their traditional classes. While the vast majority of FLVS students come from district schools (82 percent in 2007-08), the school is open to charter, private, and home-schooled students (see "Virtual Schools," forum, Winter 2009). Much of the school's recent growth has been driven by minority enrollments. Between June 2007 and July 2008, African-American enrollments grew by 49 percent, Hispanic enrollments by 42 percent, and Native American enrollments by 41 percent. Students enroll for a variety of reasons, but most come to fulfill graduation requirements, make up credits for missed or failed classes, or take Advanced Placement (AP) and other courses that are not available at their physical school (see Figure 1). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The FLVS motto, "any time, any place, any path, any pace," emphasizes the school's flexible and mastery-based approach to learning. Here, the content remains constant, but the time required--be it 16, 18, or 22 weeks--adjusts. Students at FLVS choose an accelerated, traditional, or extended pace for a particular course, taking extra time if needed to review and receive additional guidance on lessons or move through a course at a quicker pace than is typical. Moreover, FLVS students don't have to wait for the semester to begin; they can choose the month in which they would like to start. While its courses are virtual, FLVS strives for highly personalized instruction. The school employs more than 715 full-time and 29 adjunct teachers--all Florida-certified and "highly qualified" under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Depending on the course, teachers use a variety of methods to engage students, including live one-to-one or small group virtual whiteboard sessions, asynchronous discussion, and even a new experimental, immersive online game for an American history course. …

Bill Tucker

Papers

The Flipped Classroom: Online Instruction at Home Frees Class Time for Learning

Beyond the Bubble: Technology and the Future of Student Assessment.

Lessons for Online Learning: Charter Schools' Successes and Mistakes Have a Lot to Teach Virtual Educators

The Next Generation of Testing

Florida's Online Option.