Rethinking the ‘flip’:

Exploring innovative teaching practices in the university

classroom

CRICOS 00111D TOID 3059

Dr Katya PechenkinaResearch Fellow Office of the Senior DVC & ProvostLearning Transformations

Presented at Transforming Learning Conference Swinburne University of Technology13-14 September 2016Melbourne Australia http://transformconference.com/ #SwinTLC

Outline• Why flip? Aspirations vs. realities

• Towards complexity in flipped learning

• Educators’ relationship with innovation & technology

• Professional development & skills

• Measuring impact

Why flip? Aspirations vs realities‘Traditional’ flip: “lectures are presented as homework outside of class… class time is reserved for engaging directly with the material” (Gaughan, 2014)

Why do it? - Active learning- Better engagement - Shared responsibility- Student’s control over

the learning process

What happens if students do not engage with the flipped components?

Image: Saint Louis University, Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

• Academics engage with complex narratives of the ‘flip’, experimenting with what can be flipped, how and when

• ‘Responsive design’: What works in one classroom may not work in another

• Factors: cohort, expectations, prior experiences, motivations, teaching team’s expertise, skills and ability to build rapport with students

• Changing understanding of the ‘flip’ affects understanding of academic roles: educator is a hybrid, mixing various approaches to teaching and engaging students

Towards complexity in flipped learning

Educators’ relationship with innovation & technology• Technology: useful but not the ultimate goal, must be seamless

& accessible

• Time, knowledge, skills & dedication required to ‘flip’ content

• Innovation means taking a risk

• Perceptions of research outputs having more value/impact than teaching outputs may prevent academics from experimenting with their teaching

• Expectation is to be innovative but the question of ‘how’ is open to interpretation

• Support: centralised model vs. faculty-based model

• ‘Champions’ of technology: finding/developing the most appropriate tool for the task

• Training/upskilling must be an ongoing process

Professional development and skills

Measuring impact

• Defining what is excellent teaching: outputs, metrics

• Going beyond student satisfaction surveys and grades to measure impact

• Knowledge exchange

• Rewards and recognition

Thank you!

Interested in collaboration or taking part in this study?

Get in touch: epechenkina@swin.edu.au

Twitter: @katya_pechenk