Abstract
The paper introduces the concept of Flipped Learning and the results of implementing the Flipped Classroom strategy in the collaborative process of teaching-learning-assessment of mathematics and other school subjects, between a group of teachers from our high school and their students.
In recent years, Flipped Classroom strategy has been increasingly used in schools, colleges and universities in many countries. The concept of Flipped Learning - reverse learning and its practical implementation are the result of the experimental efforts and creative innovations of many educational theorists and practitioners who sought to identify the strategic teaching approaches which shift the focus of classroom activities from the teacher towards the student, as efficiently as possible. The novelty of Flipped Classroom strategy - reverse classroom is that the basic content of a curricular topic/key concept, which has to be taught and learnt, is structured by the teacher as a digital teaching scenario which contains explanatory online videos. The students can go over the content designed by the teacher in the privacy of their own home, at their own pace, whenever they feel it is necessary, until they fully reach its understanding.
The strategy minimizes the time allocated to instruction and maximizes the time required by teacher-students interaction, in order to reach the proper level of understanding of the content and carry out a variety of practical activities aimed at assisting the students in acquiring and effectively using it, thus ensuring their progress and performance. The concept of "reversal" refers to the fact that the teaching process takes place at "home" and not in the traditional classroom. The "homework" consists of students taking charge of their own learning through creative efforts and the traditional home assignments, whose purpose is to implement and reinforce the content, are done in the classroom through collaborative work.
The focus of this paper is on the practical use of the methodology promoted by the Flipped Classroom strategy in teaching mathematics, in symbiosis with the opportunities of Moodle platform and the formative benefits of GeoGebra software, complemented by those of the Wiris plugin. The development of on-demand learning content, one of the challenges of the Flipped Classroom strategy, supplement the arguments provided in the paper, in order to encourage teachers to integrate ICT resources in their teaching.
The last section of the paper presents the benefits this new strategy has to offer to the way students learn and put into practice the new knowledge by consistently making use of the Flipped Classroom strategy or by alternating it with other traditional strategies. This teaching experiment proves the fact that: developing a teaching scenario for mathematics in an e-learning environment, personalized and enriched by various Web resources, depending on the characteristics and needs of the students, leads to a high level of student motivation and interest for individual study and academic progress and development of better learning outcomes. |