Draft: Assignment 2
Introduction
Education at the collegiate level is riddled with public lectures. A teacher in the front of an auditorium talking to hundreds of students straight from a PowerPoint. This format is the target of a large amount of criticism, ridiculing it as being dissociating the teacher from the students and reducing the 'teaching' of the teachers to a text-to-speech robot reading from the slides. This criticism has brought with it a wave of 'new' and 'modern' approaches to teaching. From personal experience, the most common of these approaches, the flipped classroom style, has been the worst learning experience I have ever had.
*work to front load the topic*
Paragraph on what flipped classroom is and what is the benefits of it
The concept of flipped classroom is built from the idea of introducing students to the content before class time and utilizing the time that would have previously been for teaching to work with the content that was learned. Let's use one class period as an example. Before coming to class, the students would be expected to learn the material. This could be from watching video lectures or reading assigned content, but despite the form, they have to enter having a grasp on the material. When in class, they spend the time working with peers to solve questions and utilize the material they learned. The teacher can help the students with this synthesizing process, answering questions and aiding them as they solve the presented problems.
The theory behind this process is to allow flexibility on the students' side in their learning. Students work better at different times, in different environments, and at different speeds. This removes the standardization of the learning process, allowing students a more controlled learning experience. The time in class is made to built off of what was learned on their own. The teacher can clarify misconceptions and aid the students as they put the knowledge to use in a monitored environment. This removes the struggles of trying to do homework on your own and hitting a roadblock. On top of this, the peer work that usually goes hand in hand with flipped classroom teaching allows for collaboration of knowledge where students flush each others understandings out. In theory, this sounds like a great idea, right? But it falls apart in application.
Paragraph on why it doesn't work for me
The first step balances the whole process on its head. Self-learning is something that not everyone can do. If you aren't motivated or don't have ideal working conditions, the whole process falls apart. Who do you go to with your content questions if your teacher has been reduced to a pre-recorded video? If you don't come into class already knowing the material, then you won't be able to do the work prescribed during it. Even if you did manage to trudge through all of the content, figured it out on your own, and came to class well-prepared, what if the people you are working with didn't? Your class experience is reduced to you explaining the content to your group members as you complete the assigned material on your own. You have now taken up both the responsibilities of teacher and student on top of doing an entire group's worth of work. The traditional teacher has been removed from the process, now only serving as a homework tutor.
This process may work for some people, but it is much more catastrophic for those it doesn't work for. It creates huge gaps between students in the classroom. If people aren't self-learners, they are left behind. Those left behind only become a burden for others, piling stress and loathing on others. You can't ask for help in the learning process because you are your own teacher. There is no wiggle room to work with.
Paragraph on the best classroom experience I have had
The classroom style that works best for me comes purely from the teacher's end. I value interaction, a learning experience where I am being actively taught and can interact with the flow of information as I learn. I prefer small classroom settings, where the teacher can interact with the students and vice versa. I like a teacher who comes into class with a topic of discussion and forms their content dynamically around the questions of the students, not someone who teaches the information likes it's simply a list of ingredients. The flipped classroom style cannot provide the interaction that I and many others find crucial in the learning process. This style in practice becomes "most children left behind".
Education at the collegiate level is riddled with public lectures. A teacher in the front of an auditorium talking to hundreds of students straight from a PowerPoint. This format is the target of a large amount of criticism, ridiculing it as being dissociating the teacher from the students and reducing the 'teaching' of the teachers to a text-to-speech robot reading from the slides. This criticism has brought with it a wave of 'new' and 'modern' approaches to teaching. From personal experience, the most common of these approaches, the flipped classroom style, has been the worst learning experience I have ever had.
*work to front load the topic*
Paragraph on what flipped classroom is and what is the benefits of it
The concept of flipped classroom is built from the idea of introducing students to the content before class time and utilizing the time that would have previously been for teaching to work with the content that was learned. Let's use one class period as an example. Before coming to class, the students would be expected to learn the material. This could be from watching video lectures or reading assigned content, but despite the form, they have to enter having a grasp on the material. When in class, they spend the time working with peers to solve questions and utilize the material they learned. The teacher can help the students with this synthesizing process, answering questions and aiding them as they solve the presented problems.
The theory behind this process is to allow flexibility on the students' side in their learning. Students work better at different times, in different environments, and at different speeds. This removes the standardization of the learning process, allowing students a more controlled learning experience. The time in class is made to built off of what was learned on their own. The teacher can clarify misconceptions and aid the students as they put the knowledge to use in a monitored environment. This removes the struggles of trying to do homework on your own and hitting a roadblock. On top of this, the peer work that usually goes hand in hand with flipped classroom teaching allows for collaboration of knowledge where students flush each others understandings out. In theory, this sounds like a great idea, right? But it falls apart in application.
Paragraph on why it doesn't work for me
The first step balances the whole process on its head. Self-learning is something that not everyone can do. If you aren't motivated or don't have ideal working conditions, the whole process falls apart. Who do you go to with your content questions if your teacher has been reduced to a pre-recorded video? If you don't come into class already knowing the material, then you won't be able to do the work prescribed during it. Even if you did manage to trudge through all of the content, figured it out on your own, and came to class well-prepared, what if the people you are working with didn't? Your class experience is reduced to you explaining the content to your group members as you complete the assigned material on your own. You have now taken up both the responsibilities of teacher and student on top of doing an entire group's worth of work. The traditional teacher has been removed from the process, now only serving as a homework tutor.
This process may work for some people, but it is much more catastrophic for those it doesn't work for. It creates huge gaps between students in the classroom. If people aren't self-learners, they are left behind. Those left behind only become a burden for others, piling stress and loathing on others. You can't ask for help in the learning process because you are your own teacher. There is no wiggle room to work with.
Paragraph on the best classroom experience I have had
The classroom style that works best for me comes purely from the teacher's end. I value interaction, a learning experience where I am being actively taught and can interact with the flow of information as I learn. I prefer small classroom settings, where the teacher can interact with the students and vice versa. I like a teacher who comes into class with a topic of discussion and forms their content dynamically around the questions of the students, not someone who teaches the information likes it's simply a list of ingredients. The flipped classroom style cannot provide the interaction that I and many others find crucial in the learning process. This style in practice becomes "most children left behind".
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