Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. By JonathanBergmann and AaronSams. Alexandria, Va.: The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2012. ix + 112 pages. ISBN 978‐1‐56484‐315‐9. $13.57.

Abstract

In this short introduction to the flipped classroom model, the authors, Bergmann and Sams (both recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science, 2002 and 2009 respectively), offer their journey as teachers who switched from traditional instructional models to the student-centered “flipped” classroom. In this model, direct instruction takes place in the environment usually reserved for “homework” while time in class is used for active problem solving in one-to-one or small group interaction with the teacher. Although the context of Bergmann and Sams's experience is the high school level, the description of their thinking as educators and their practical application of the model is applicable to higher education contexts. The authors are generous in sharing their practical insights, techniques, and practices. They share the process of how they mastered the method, including mistakes made along the way which yielded insights, learning, and innovation. The authors write that “Flipping the classroom establishes a framework that ensures students receive a personalized education tailored to their individual needs” (6). In this book they offer their variation of the flipped classroom, one of a cluster of student-centered models like blended learning, mastery learning, reverse instruction, the inverted classroom, and the 24/7 classroom. The authors describe the pedagogical implications of the flipped classroom, including the shifts in the focus and function of content, student, and teacher. For example, they state that “the role of the teacher in the classroom has dramatically changed. We are no longer the presenters of information; instead, we take on more of a tutorial role” (14). They illustrate how they spend their time in the classroom working with students on concepts-acquisition, hands-on learning, and problem solving. Throughout, the authors' enthusiasm for this change in their teaching is evident. They state, “As we look back … we realize we could never go back to teaching in the traditional manner” (19). Early chapters enumerate and illustrate the pedagogical benefits of the flipped classroom: more individualized learning, increased teacher-student time, flexibility which allows paced learning for mastery, increased cooperative learning (student-to-student learning), and overcoming the limitations and hindrances of overly prescribed instructional methods that focus overmuch on the teacher as expert, content coverage, and testing recall as opposed to assessment of learning. Bergmann and Sams describe in detail their use of technologies that facilitate the flipped classroom. But they are clear that the goal of educational technology is increased interaction with students, not the replacement of the teacher in the classroom. “In fact, we strongly believe that flipping the classroom creates an ideal merger of online and face-to-face instruction that is becoming known as a “blended” classroom” (25). The authors' description of the process they use to think through the teaching-learning process, then, of conceptualizing the design and implementation of the flipped classroom is of great value. While not heavy in educational theory, their description of both process and method give evidence of the authors' intentional application and implementation of pedagogical theory. Of particular interest, for example, is the way they use the flipped classroom as a way to implement the mastery learning approach for their students' subject areas of science and math. This short book is a handy practical introduction to the flipped classroom model. The book benefits from being the product of dozens of presentations by the authors on the subject. As such, the book itself is a good example of another important pedagogical rule: “give them as much information as they need, but not more.”