Blog 14 Flip learning at CCA

Hello, everyone ✌

For this new entry, I will reflect on one of the most important requierments when it comes to teaching at the KTP program: flip learning. For this entry, first, I will write a short definition of what flip learning is and why its a crucial part of the CCA curriculum. Then, I will mention some activities and stretagies I made based on Flip learning in my classes at the CCA. Finally, I will reflect on the importance that flip learning has in modern English Teaching Methodologies and how I plan to improve my approach with this metodology that is new for me.

The guiding question for this entry is:

Select one of the activities you have planned for today’s class and reflect: How would you apply flipped learning to this activity? Describe what students would do before, during, and after class.

Flip learning

Flip learning is pretty recent teaching methodology that aims to rethink and change the traditional roles of the teacher and students in a classroom. Normally, it is expected for teachers to be the ones who gives the information and the students just recive it. In flip learning, students become the teachers and teachers become the students. In the area of English Language Learning, Flip learning has very similirities with the constructivist approach of vigostky, interactional learning and communicative language learning, as its expect for students to build knowledge in community and reinforce it throughtout learning habits and constant trial and error.

In this case, students are the main center of the classroom and the teacher is in charge of guiding students to learn inductivly the rules and key aspects of the lesson they are learning. To achieve this goal, students need to have a good exposition to the target language, be able to infer information and explain it to their classmates. Also, students need to practice, both in and out-class and recieve support of the teacher so errors or interferations can be addressed properly.

In my classes:

Although the main idea of this entry is to try to rethink an activity I did in my class as how it could had been applied using flip learning, I want to highilight an activity that reflects how flip learning can be done to teach a grammar topic, I didn't even realize it was flip learning until my team teacher told me.

This case happened in my TB1 1.3 class, the grammar topic was reported speech for command suggestions and offers. Before the class, students did a class preparation in which they would see a video about the topic and would create 3 sentences using what they understood. In class, I asked students to retrace what they did in the class preparation and I gave them a PowerPoint presentation in case they needed to refresh knowledge or didn't do the class preparation. Then, each group would explain how to do the reported speech for their assigned communicative purpose. In my case, I acted as an student and I asked questions to my teachers to help me fix errors and clarify information. After class, students have an action plan in which they practice the topic to reinforced what they learning and optional resources to wide their understanding.

Reflection:

Flip learning is a pretty new approach for me when it comes to my teaching techniques. I'm more used to to teacher center sessions and I didn't know all the preparation that flip learning has. It has been a really enriching process as I can see the benefits that flip learning has for my students as it helps them to reflect, think, express ideas and maintain a constant process of learning that not only happens in the classroom, but outside too. I will continue to work hard to make this new technique part of my teaching repertoire. After all, the role of teachers is not longer the center of the knowledge, but the facilitaitor for students to build their own knowledge.