Student opinion varies on flipped class teaching format

Lucas Ortman, junior, is currently enrolled in Shannon Campbell’s AP Physics one class, his first flipped classroom.

“I like the flipped classroom. I get to review the notes as I’m learning them and then we have more time in class to have questions for the teacher,” Ortman said.

In his physics class, usually a video lesson is assigned a few times a week along with guided notes. Next class period, Campbell answers any questions the students may have about the online lesson, then they begin working on homework and practice problems all together.

Typically, a teacher only uses flipped classrooms for math and science. Physics is the only class Ortman is enrolled in where a flipped environment is used. Although Ortman has had a positive experience with the new style, he said he would not want it for some subjects, like a world language. 

Rachel Paese, junior, is currently enrolled in Human Anatomy Flex with Jennifer Keillor, who uses a flipped classroom. Paese has previously been introduced to this new outline in her seventh grade math class.

“I think math and Anatomy with flipped classroom is a lot different just because what you’re learning and the way you’re learning it is very different. Personally, I don’t love the flipped classroom for Anatomy because it’s hard for me to retain the information through a video,” Paese said.

Some students, like Paese, are more visual and struggle with paying attention to the voice-over lessons.

“Just listening to someone speak is a lot harder for me than like actually doing something… [To make up for the lack of visual learning] I just ask for clarifications or we do a lot of helpful graphic organizers and coloring sheets and stuff like that,” Paese said.

Paese believes other students in the same anatomy class are also struggling. There’s more responsibility to keeping up with all the video lessons and confronting the teacher with questions if there’s any confusion with the subject.

While some students such as Paese are having issues with the class, there are advantages to this structure. Due to the fact that the lessons are given at home, students can watch the video(s) numerous amounts of times until they have really grasped the necessary information or are at least able to understand and complete the given guided notes assigned by the teacher.