Why I chose to Flip My Classroom

How can technology support my solution and why is it the right direction to move mathematics instruction.?

The background resulting in the flipped classroom model has been developing since 1993, when Allison King wrote “From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side” (King, 1993). Building on King’s work, Eric Mazur, a Harvard professor, presented his peer-instruction concept, in which students collaborate with emphasis on the Socratic Method by using guiding questions to facilitate their deeper conceptual understanding. Mazur's research detailed the percentage of students who switch out of a STEM major, separated by course pedagogy. “The proportion of students who were enrolled in the traditionally taught introductory physics course and switched out of a STEM major is more than twice that of students enrolled in the courses taught using PI (peer-instruction)” (Mazur & Watkins, 2013, table 1). 

Salomon Khan, known for his free website Khan Academy, was a major contributor to the idea of the flipped classroom through the use of video to promote learning, offering 24/7 access to the site, and espousing the positive growth mindset that anyone can learn anything (Cargile, 2015). 

The above developments led two science teachers, Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams (authors of “Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day”) to begin creating their own lesson videos on YouTube so that they could focus on deep learning tasks and experimentation during class. They were successful, and now have a website dedicated to helping teachers flip their classrooms, attend conferences, and deliver professional development throughout the United States.