Wish Your Students Were Greater Partners in the Learning Process?

On her blog, Turn to your Neighbor, senior STEM educational researcher at Harvard and instructional designer at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences the University of Texas at Austin, Julie Schell, writes:

"Close your eyes and imagine a place, on a planet far far away, where students relish doing challenging homework problems…on their own and smile while doing them; in fact, where they may even be inspired to do individual homework and have no compulsion to cheat. A cozy place where during most of a three hour lecture period the instructor mingles casually with students discussing the beautiful and big ideas of her discipline, while the students intensely collaborate and innovate. And where sophisticated (and correct) subject-matter language, punctuated with phrases such as 'how do you know that?' or 'what’s your evidence for that?' or 'what if we tried it this way?' are coming from students’ mouths, not from instructors or teaching assistants." (September 20, 2012)

Schell is not referring to an imaginary class-- but to an introductory and mixed-major, calculus-based physics course taught at Harvard by Professor Eric Mazur and preceptor Carolann Koleci.

If you dream of such a place – one in which your students take greater ownership of their learning, come to class better prepared, pay close attention during lectures, think more deeply about course content, and demonstrate better mastery of course material by the end of the term -- then you too may want to consider how to flip your classroom.

In a flipped class, the idea is to deliver the course material to students outside the classroom, while in-class you guide and provide feedback to your students as they work with the material to deepen their understanding and uncover misconceptions.  Most commonly, content is delivered before class meetings online via videos or slides with voiceovers, but also through low-tech means such as reading assignments with reflection prompts. There are many ways to flip.

Become a 2013 Class of 1969 Teaching Scholar and explore your options!

This year’s Class of 1969 Teaching Scholars will explore the topic of “Flipping the Classroom.”  We will explore the literature on flipped classes and learn about how our colleagues from Engineering, the Sciences, and the Liberal Arts are flipping their classes at Georgia Tech.  Each Teaching Scholar will then pilot his or her own initiative to flip all or part of a class they are teaching Spring Semester – and receive a $1000 fellowship to support the implementation of the project and/or disseminate information about it.

Teaching Scholars will meet on Tuesdays from 11:05 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. during Fall Semester and twice during Spring Term on dates and times mutually acceptable to the group.

For more information and to apply, see “Class of 1969 Teaching Scholars” at http://www.cetl.gatech.edu/faculty/tfs

Applications accepted beginning May 6, 2013