Teaching in the 21st Century: The Flipped Classroom Approach
Prof. Dr. Himdad A. Muhammad
Salahaddin University
[email protected]
Abstract
Teaching methods change over time in order to meet the needs of learners at different levels. Learners’ needs have witnessed overall changes due to the advancement and integration of technology in education. Teaching in the 21st century has become more demanding as the learners are more acquainted with technology right from their very young age. This affects their learning style and tendencies. Over the past years, several non-traditional approaches to teaching have been proposed to yield better results. The new teaching approached use various strategies and utilizes technology to connect with learners more effectively. Therefore, ‘blended learning’ has been a cover term for many new approaches and methodologies in the 21st Century. One of the recent and effective approaches for teaching iscalled ‘The Flipped Classroom’. In this approach, lectures and theoretical material are mostly shared outside of class time in order to be read and reviewed, whereas the classroom time is almost entirely maintained for learners to finish up their due assignments, activities and more practical parts of the lesson, along with clarifying points that were difficult for learners’ themselves to digest. The Flipped Classroom Approach has several goals but three of them are very important, namely, turning the classroom to an active learning environment, allowing learners to learn at their own pace, provide more time to teachers for more individualized teaching. It is found out that flipping enhances learning experience in general because it is customized, active and more engaging for learners as it allows them to learn at their own pace. It, also, provides a continued review of the subject through the videos which leads to better learner-autonomy.
Keywords: 21st Century, blended learning, flipped Classroom
Doi: 10.23918/vesal2022a1