How to Flip your Professional Development
A few years ago, flipped instruction, was a concept touted
by only the most adventurous of educators. Now, however, the movement has
taken off from being a rare practice to an integral part of thousands of
classrooms all over the world. According to
research from online course provider Sophia Learning and the Flipped Learning
Network, the number of teachers who have flipped a lesson has grown from 48
percent in 2012 to 78 percent in 2015. Moreover, google trend reports (see
graph below) analyzing the quantity of searches for the term ‘flipped
classroom’ point out that interest in this movement has grown by magnitudes
within the last five years. Also within the graph below you’ll notice a
relatively constant quantity of search for the term since 2013, counteracting
the common criticism that the flipped
classroom is a fad destined to fade away.
Along with this rapid growth of adapting flipped methodologies
with classroom students, flipped
instruction has recently become a mainstay for instructional leaders to provide
differentiated learning pathways for educators at
their school. Use cases vary among strategies to administer state testing,
manage classroom behavior, incorporate the newest learning management system,
and much more.
Flipped Professional Development at
Hudson Middle
I chatted with Misty Mitchell, Media Specialist/Educational
Technology Specialist on the Middle School Campus of Hudson ISD, to learn
more about why and how they are flipping professional development.
As Misty points out, before flipping, professional development simply did not effectively connect with teachers. During their conference period, teachers were required to
come in and sit for an hour, passively listening to the instructor go
through a powerpoint presentation. As Misty points out "If you are only
using lecture style teaching, it doesn’t matter whether you are teaching
students or the most experienced teachers, it is simply not effective”. During
traditional lecture style professional development, attendees do not listen,
they lose focus, and in many cases get angry because an hour of their time is
wasted. More than that, the PD instructor has no way to track who understands
their content and consequently they have no way to fine tune their presentation
to the needs of their audience.
 |
| Cristina Peterson |
https://www.playposit.com/public/58215/367996/telpas-writing-samples.
Following the at-home video lecture, teachers come in for a live
hands-on session with their teacher trainer, Cristina. Since Cristina already
has data from PlayPosit on viewing behavior and which concepts were the most
challenging, the live sessions are seriously condensed with a focus on only the
training that needs to happen. Teachers appreciate the time saved and are
generally more engaged during the live sessions as a result of the personalized
instruction. Furthermore, for the teachers with no experience with flipping,
this is a great introduction to the practice. After experiencing the benefits
of flipping (more hands-on time with the instructor, deeper conversations, more
critical thinking, etc.) first-hand, they are ready to introduce the methodology
into their own classroom.
At schools like Hudson Middle, flipping has evolved from a
strategy to more deeply engage students, to a strategy adopted by nearly all
stakeholders within the school. Are you at
a school flipping professional development or in the process of considering the
practice? If so, we’d love to learn more about your school and use
case! Shoot me email at swaroop@playposit.com