Abstract
This article describes strategies used by the author to introduce a flipped teaching approach into a traditional course taught at a UK higher education institution. Traditional live lectures are replaced by video screencasts to be viewed outside the classroom by the students. Lecturer–student contact time is used for interactive workshop activities aimed at facilitating deeper conceptual understanding of the subject material. Changing to a flipped student-centric approach from the more traditional lecturer-centric approach can be challenging for both student and lecturer alike. This article describes such an attempt in modules for 2nd and 4th Year chemistry undergraduates. Student surveys show that the vast majority of students are quite positive about the flipped approach and prefer it to the traditional delivery. Based on the receptive nature of the student response and the greater opportunity for developing higher learning skills afforded by this approach, we believe it should be more widely adopted in the teaching of the physical sciencesin UK higher education.
Highlights
Traditional physical science courses at UK higher education institutions are lecture-centred with this mode of didactic teaching dominating the student–lecturer contact time
The suitability of the didactic lecture format for teaching and learning has recently been challenged by the proliferation of flipped or inverted teaching methods originating from high schools in the USA
The flipped teaching method essentially reverses the traditional teaching model, in which students are instructed via lectures during the student–teacher contact time
Summary
Traditional physical science courses at UK higher education institutions are lecture-centred with this mode of didactic teaching dominating the student–lecturer contact time. The flipped teaching method essentially reverses the traditional teaching model, in which students are instructed via lectures during the student–teacher contact time In their own time students review the material covered in class and use problem-solving or other exercises to further probe and understand the presented material. Transmission of the required information takes place outside of class without any direct face-to-face teacher–student contact, while the development of the student's comprehension is carried out in the teacher's presence via interactive problem-solving sessions or use of personal response systems. The advantages of this approach are that the teacher–student contact time is used to develop the students' understanding of the topic. The screencasts were made available via the university VLE, Blackboard
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