Flipped Classroom

Making the most of the learning experience

 

Nurhanis Syazni Roslan

 

For the past 30 years we have seen the revolution of practically everything in this world - except, arguably, our pedagogy preference. In many situations, teaching still means teach where the teacher is the knowledge gatekeeper and students as the content consumer - passively absorbing the taught content. As education now talks about Adult Learning Principles, Cognitive Load Theory, overcrowding of syllabus and the need to attain higher-order thinking skills, the change must start to take place.

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In this issue, we delve into the Flipped Classroom - a noteworthy trend in teaching and learning. It flips 'lecture in class' and 'homework at home' to 'lecture at home' and 'homework in class'. We revisit the diagram by Associate Professor Dr. Muhamad Saiful to illustrate the principle of the Flipped Classroom. To translate theory into practice, we share a personal journey from a well-known clinician, Professor Harlina Halizah Siraj and tips on reducing the cognitive burden in Cognitive Load Series by Dr. Siti Nurma Hanim. To make flipping your classroom even easier, we show a quick map of the process and applications that can be used in each phase. On top of these, we have our loyal alumni contributor, Dr. Yeoh Boon Seng with a new Cardiac Output series and the dynamic relationship between senior and junior medical students. We also feature a reflection from Dr. Abdul Jabbar Ismail on his first experience as an ICU registrar.

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In November 2017 we tried the flipped classroom approach in the Medical Ethics class in GMT103 using the Open Learning application. The students loved it and we remembered Professor Hans, Professor Mohtar and Associate Professor Dr. Noraida telling us how engaged the students were in the class and how feasible it was to prepare the material.

 

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Change is a constant, and we shall embrace change. While some may think that flipped classroom makes us irrelevant and is labour-intensive, the fact is - it doesn't. Flipping the classroom requires us to plan, facilitate and give feedback during the learning process. We can actually save a lot of time by using readily available materials online. Flipped classroom may upgrade the educator to become a learning manager or even an instructional designer. This reminds me of a quote by Prof Peter Hawkins:

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"The day I stop learning when I teach the subject, is the day that I should stop teaching it."

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Let's do this, together! ea