Originally posted on my flglobal.org blog. Check it out HERE
The topic of rigor is a focus of many administrators throughout the world. Administrators want to ensure that classrooms are being conducted in such a manner that students are getting the most from the curriculum while being challenged to engage higher order thinking skills. When we approach the idea of flipping our classes, administrators want to ensure that rigor is not going to flounder. I believe that Flipped Learning creates an environment in which rigor thrives. A fellow Master Flipped Educator, Peter Paccone, asked the students and teachers in his high school to define rigor. The results of that poll were revealing. He said the students viewed rigor as the number of hours spent outside of class on graded, challenging homework. When the teachers were polled, they said that rigor was a class with a foreboding name (Chemistry, Calculus BC), only a few A’s, slightly more B’s, and lots of C’s. These results made it clear that there is confusion about what rigor actually means. Google defined it as the quality of being extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate, but it lacked the qualities I felt administrators were looking for in classrooms. After much discussion with other flipped classroom teachers, a definition of rigor emerged. One that I believe is challenging, yet foundational for a quality education. Rigor is the act of engaging higher order thinking skills within an active learning environment to generate a thorough, exhaustive, and accurate engagement with classroom content. My search for a connection between Flipped Learning and rigor began with a question: Does Flipped Learning produce rigor in the classroom? The answer seemed to be a resounding NO, which did not make sense. Martha Ramirez, a fellow Master Flipped Educator, told me that Flipped Learning could lead to rigor, but it does not guarantee it. As I pondered that statement, it became apparent that rigor is not guaranteed because the quality of Flipped Learning that is being delivered has great variance. Reza Najjar, a Master Flipped Educator from Iran, shared his list of the characteristics of an effective flipped classroom:
If flip is being implemented well, it harnesses the potential for an extremely rigorous learning environment. Merely flipping a class does NOT guarantee a rigorous classroom, just as having the right ingredients to make a cake (eggs, flour, oil, milk, etc) do not guarantee the cake will taste good. The teacher or cook must use the ingredients appropriately to ensure a quality product. When educators are well trained in Flipped Learning and are given the support necessary to create a positive flipped classroom, rigor has a much greater potential for developing. Though flip may not “guarantee” rigor, it can be argued that flip sets the stage for rigor to occur more efficiently than in a traditional instructional model. Nothing in education can guarantee results, because everything in education has the potential to be done poorly. There isn’t a 100% guarantee, but there can be a high probability. So as I revisit my initial question: Does Flipped Learning produce rigor in the classroom? The answer depends on the quality of the flipped education that is being delivered. Great flipped teaching leads to a rigorous education through:
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Mr. Dan JonesMaster Flip Educator with 13 years experience in the classroom. FLGI Faculty Trainer who trains based on the Gold Standard of Flipped Learning 3.0. Expertise in project based learning. Archives
October 2018
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