Teachers and students are getting flipped. For the children, no more countless hours spent on homework when study after study shows it is not an effective way to learn. For the teachers, no more shouting at the kids to do their homework.
Pupils on a pilot project at St Brigid’s National School in Greystones, Co Wicklow are using the WordsWorth Learning Programme for the flipped classroom model.
Instead of the pupils listening in class and then doing the homework, they watch video tutorials outside class and do some interactive exercises to consolidate what they have been taught. The next day, they go back to school and build on what they have learned; they also learn from each other.
“Using this peer-group learning approach means that the students become more involved,” says Orla Teehan, learning support teacher at St Brigid’s. “When they come to me, they feel more confident because they have already done the work at home.”
The school also uses the programme to maintain and improve literacy standards. WordsWorth and similar programmes are likely to become commonplace, although a debate is needed on the role of for-profit service providers in the education system and whether we dance to their tune or get them to work for what we need.
Still, leading educators have advocated for this model, including Pip Ferguson of DCU’s teaching enhancement unit and the late Bianca Ní Ghrógáin, a leading innovator in education. Trials with the children at St Brigid’s learning support unit have shown that the flipped classroom model leads to marked improvements in reading accuracy, reading comprehension and spelling skills.
Welcome to the classroom of the future. This is one of numerous innovations changing how students learn.
Fast changes
“When I started teaching 15 years ago, I could never have imagined the changes that would take place in my classroom in such a short amount of time,” says Maggie Green, a teacher at Letterkenny Educate Together national school and founder of The School Door, which runs workshops promoting hands-on learning for children.
“Teachers cannot remain static,” she adds. “They have to evolve to meet the needs of the children they teach. And, as time goes on, this will continue to change. I’m lucky to work in a very progressive school with innovative teachers who aren’t afraid of change and will happily move out of their comfort zones.”
Green says the flipped classroom will be commonplace in 20 years. There will also be more personalised learning.
“I hope to see the development of more e-study tools that will adapt to the needs and capabilities of the students,” she says. “But it is imperative that the student is a participant and cocreator of the space in which they learn. I hope that as time progresses, the powers-that-be realise how important it is to talk to the students themselves about what they are being taught.
“It is important that the students are enabled to give critical feedback and that, over time, they can become more involved in the formation of the curricula they are being taught.”
And project-based learning will be the norm.
“This is beginning to happen,” Green says, “but I would like to see more focus placed on it. Project-based learning allows children to learn the skills of time management, organisation and collaboration and it also employs the use of research skills. The development of all of these skills from an early age will be an advantage to the children as they move through the school system and on to third level education and the workplace.”
At Stratford College in Dublin, teachers now tap into a range of new technologies. Last year they rolled out Office365 and One Note to make collaborative spaces for students to work on projects in school and at home. They are also using e-portfolios, an innovation that could shift the emphasis away from the classroom as the centre of learning.
Capture learning
“These are student-owned, dynamic, digital workspaces where students can capture their learning and their ideas, access their collections of work, reflect on their learning and share it, set goals, seek feedback and showcase their learning and achievements,” says Stratford principal Patricia Gordon.
“We use it in our current first-year English class, where students work on a digital newsletter. They work on this at home and in school, and towards a printing deadline. Each group meets to agree their ‘homework’ for the next day so that they can go to press. And when they have finished they will reflect on how effectively they worked together as a group.”
However, the classroom of the future may not be completely unrecognisable.
“Teachers will still be facilitating student learning through a mix of methods and activities,” Gordon says. “There will be more emphasis on collaborative classroom-based learning and assessment through and with technology. There will be a greater emphasis on different models of professional development and teacher autonomy. The transition between second and third-level and the world of work will be better facilitated.
“But, whatever happens, good teachers, a love of learning, information, passion and energy will always exist in education.”
Five changes in the classroom of 2036
Actually, in 20 years there may not be a classroom at all. Fixed seating will be a thing of the past. English is unlikely to be the sole language of communication. Copybooks will be gone, replaced with digital paper. Current AV technology will go the way of the overhead projector.
So what will the classroom of 2036 – or whatever takes its place – look like? Here are some suggestions from Kieran Corcoran, head of the school of creative arts at DIT; Patricia Gordon, principal of Stratford College; and Maggie Green, primary school teacher at Letterkenny Educate Together and founder of TheSchoolDoor.ie:
1. Flipped classrooms will be more common, with instructional content, often online, delivered outside school hours and activities traditionally considered homework performed in the classroom. Learning will be self-paced and children will have more opportunity to learn anytime and anywhere.
2. The physical layout of classrooms will change. Labs, studios and learning spaces will be one and the same. Desks and chairs will be dispensed with in favour of learning centres within the room.
3. Textbooks may become historic artefacts as teachers move towards greater use of digital tools and resources. Children will use “digital paper” and upload their assignments and activities to the relevant folder for the teacher to access and correct. This is more likely to be on handheld devices than laptops or PCs.
4. Automatic translation will cope with the range of different languages used.
5. Zero-energy buildings will provide heat, cooling and light; stuffy, airless classroom will be unthinkable.