The Meta-Principle is the 'Active' Classroom

I met an intriguing character at FlipCon Adelaide, and he challenged me to blog weekly. He said to me, as long as it is authentic, and it reflects your struggles, people want to hear.  He directed me to the most popular program on his radio network…’My Bad’ which is basically a program about high profile educators sharing their biggest mistakes.

Given that evidence, it was hard to disagree with him. So, to that end, here I am again. I’m going make a brave attempt at blogging weekly. Thanks for the encouragement Errol.

I think I can do 4 paragraphs a week.

It has been awhile hasn’t it? I write this in late November, and I can see my last post was in August.

A few things that have got in the way of my blogging include: two beautiful children (one who doesn’t sleep), one arduous but worthwhile Highly Accomplished Teacher accreditation process, being a part of a dynamic but incredibly demanding team here at Inaburra, and yes, who could forget – a university degree on the side.

The latter has been deferred…just too much going on! Must sleep.

Did I mention I have also been busy preparing my presentations for FlipCon Brisbane and FlipCon Adelaide? I should have. Perhaps you caught them.

Briefly – I presented on the viability of Flipping the K-6 Classroom and used my own Year 5 and Year 6 classrooms as a template for the struggles and success of this strategy.

In my second presentation I conducted a mini-meta analysis of some of the available literature concerning the efficacy and satisfaction rates of the Flipped

Classroom.

(Which in English means … do students like it and does it lead to improved results?)

You can find the data here: https://sites.google.com/site/efficacyversussatisfaction/conclusion

The short answer?

The flipped classroom generally leads to improved results, but students don’t always like it. Unless the strategy itself leads to an ACTIVE classroom environment students may be equally satisfied with the flipped or traditional models, or even dissatisfied with the flipped model.

The lesson?

Flip your classroom, in order to make your classroom an active classroom.

(JonBergmann would probably argue that if your classroom isn’t active, then you are not ‘flipping’.)

There’s the goal.

Or as Aaron Sams cheerfully put it -  ‘Active Learning is the Meta-Principle’.

On that note - so long Aaron. You will be missed from the FlipCon circuit. It was great hearing from you. Looking forward to reading your Doctorate.