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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 Likes: 2
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http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/in-flipped-classrooms-a-method-for-mastery/In ‘Flipped’ Classrooms, a Method for Mastery By TINA ROSENBERG New York Times October 23, 2013, 11:15 am 280 Comments In traditional schooling, time is a constant and understanding is a variable. A fifth-grade class will spend a set number of days on prime factorization and then move on to study greatest common factors — whether or not every student is ready.
But there is another way to look at schooling — through the lens of a method called “mastery learning,” in which the student’s understanding of a subject is a constant and time is a variable; when each fifth grader masters prime factorization, for instance, he moves on to greatest common factors, each at his own pace.
Mastery learning is not a new idea. It was briefly popular in the 1920s, and was revived by Benjamin Bloom in his paper “Learning for Mastery” in 1968. It has shown dramatic success — compilations of studies can be found here and here.
One of the advantages of mastery learning is that the student, not the teacher, leads — and we know that people learn far better when they are actively involved. The teacher provides materials, tools and constant support. Students set their own goals and manage their own time.
In a traditional classroom, the teacher must aim the lecture at the middle, leaving the faster learners bored and the slower ones lost. Differentiation and personalization are big challenges. But the mastery system allows each student to learn at her own pace.
Mastery also rewards students for actual learning. A student cannot simply turn in a shoddy paper, take the D and move on. If she turns in shoddy work, she can’t move on. She has to keep trying until she demonstrates she fully understands.
Despite these advantages, mastery learning never caught on, mainly because it was a nightmare for teachers. One problem was how to do direct instruction; a teacher can’t give five different lectures in one class. The other was how to test students. Multiple versions of a test were needed so students couldn’t pass them to friends who would be taking them later.
But some teachers are now reviving mastery learning. What is making it feasible is the flipped classroom, a method I wrote about in my most recent column. This column was http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/turning-education-upside-down/Turning Education Upside Down By TINA ROSENBERG New York Times October 9, 2013, 11:45 am 348 Comments ****************************************************** If students in a flipped classroom are at very different levels, people may wonder why they are in the same class. Some of the 5th graders may belong with 3rd graders and some with 7th graders. Schools don't want to do this, as it would make for awkward conversations with parents of students who are behind their same-grade peers. Schools are rewarded for 5th grade students doing well on the the state 5th grade math tests, but not for 5th grade students doing higher level math. This removes an incentive for letting advanced students study topics beyond what is tested in their grade.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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What is making it feasible is the flipped classroom, a method I wrote about in my most recent column. What is making it feasible is the flipped classroom, the illusion that "learning" can be fully automated using modern technology, canned instructional "modules" and in-line multiple choice testing to "evaluate understanding" which only REALLY seems to work with some subjects and some students... There. Fixed it for her.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Aug 2012
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This article makes it sound like mastery learning (which I do think is ideal) is only feasible with a flipped classroom. She should visit a Montessori.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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^ +1.  Discussion format classrooms ALSO make this possible. Colleges have used this method for a very long time. About a thousand years, give or take.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Apr 2010
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Joined: May 2013
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Our district has been flipping classrooms as a pilot program and I think they fully intend to implement it district wide at some point. Not sure how I feel about it. For math at least, really nothing can be worse that what they are doing right now. Everyone gets the same math lecture in class and the same worksheet every day.
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Joined: Feb 2013
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Oh I get it. "Flipped classroom" is just a kind of homeschooling.
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Joined: Jul 2012
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If the initial premise is that differentiated, mastery-based education is an ideal, then what does the ideal classroom look like that meets that need?
How is adequate differentiated instruction going to take place?
I think "flipped" is a bit trite and over-extended into its own definition. Setting that aside, it isn't at all clear how you get to mastery-based without looking a bit flipped?
I've wondered this a lot. Even reflecting on my childhood, or looking at my son and his math interests. It is really hard to see the fair balance in the mix. If you have 20 kids each working at a different pace on different material, in an hour do you give each 3 minutes of direct instruction at their level?
That's a cluster with N=1. What if in the class of twenty your cluster size averages 4? But there are 8 clusters: 4 clusters of 4 and 4 clusters of 1. Do you divide the hour by 8 or by 5? Do some kids get 12 minutes of instruction at their level because they are in a cluster of four and some get 3 miutes? Or is it 7.5 minutes per cluster?
What if you take "home" out of the equation? What would in class flipping look like? 30 minutes of lecture to the middle area while outliers do independent video + reading, then 30 minutes of floating support while kids do problems and experiment or whatnot?
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Oh I get it. "Flipped classroom" is just a kind of homeschooling. :ROFL: Why.... yes. Yes, it is. 
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Jul 2013
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Flipped classroom done right can be a great way of taking advantage of technology and allowing teachers to work more individually with students. I don't think it is a good idea for children as lectures aren't the traditional way children learn in a classroom anyway. The only way I could see it is if kids are watching entertaining learning videos at home. I have been using some version of flipped classroom techniques at the University level for over a decade. The idea is that let students do things they can do best alone at home like watch lectures, read etc. and use the classroom time for group work and application of the principles etc while the teacher is available and can walk around and interact with the students and busy students don't have to figure out when they can meet to do group work. I fear this is not how the principle will be applied and will be a disaster for children.
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