My high school geometry teacher, Mr. Crowsen, would put our
assignment on the board at the end of class. Typically we would need to read the next section as homework and do the
practice problems. In class,
we would correct these then begin on the next section. Mr. Crowsen was an assigner/corrector. He never really taught us anything in a
lecture.
In the early 1990’s a lot of teachers were talking about
allowing students to construct their own meaning and knowledge based on teacher-assigned
explorations. This style was known
as “guide on the side” since it was so different from the strict lecture format
known as “sage on the stage”.
Perhaps Mr. Crowsen, our head football coach, was trying to get us to
construct our own meanings, but I think he just didn’t want to teach.
Now we hear a lot about the flipped classroom. This is a model where students go home and watch a web-based video that contains the content the teacher wants the student to
learn. The student then completes
exercises and discusses them the following day with the teacher. Depending on the student’s performance,
the next video is assigned. This
system reminds me of Mr. Crowsen’s style with the improvement of videos over
the dry math book for conveying the content.
Another advantage of the flipped
classroom over Mr. Crowsen’s technique is that motivated students are able
to move more quickly through the material.
After Mr. Crowsen’s class, I would go to Mrs. Tyler’s
English class. I remember a lesson
where she had us read a chapter of Huck
Finn at home. The following
day she had us rank the characters from least moral to most moral. Our task was to come up with the
correct ranking. After doing this
individually, we met with a partner and made any changes to our ranking. Finally, Mrs. Tyler revealed her
ranking: the right answer.
However, it was different from mine.
What followed was an amazing discussion of right and wrong
that explored historical, religious and literary interpretations of
morality. Mrs. Tyler urged us to
think about To Kill a Mocking Bird
and the morality in that book. I
emerged from that class a different person. Mrs. Tyler had caused me to question my own believes and
marvel at the skill of the writers.
I burned to understand and to read more.
What if Mrs. Tyler had been an assigner/correcter?
Would I have become the person I am today? I think not.
The flipped classroom certainly
has a legitimate place in modern education, but it’s far too weak a model to
replace an engaging, encouraging teacher and a transformative classroom
discussion. Sorry Mr. Crowsen, I
don’t remember any of your lessons.
