While local Boards of Education encourage more use of technology in the classroom, teachers know that technology cannot be used for its own sake; it is a tool that should be used only where there is a clear benefit in learning subject matter. Simply replacing pen and paper with a word processor does not help students understand literary themes or historical events any better. Giving a student a calculator does not help them understand how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide. The challenge is to identify our own shortcomings in education, and look everywhere for help. If technology does in fact offer a solution, it should be pursued with great ambition.
The flipped classroom is a learning structure, which reverses the roles of class time and homework time. The flipped classroom exemplifies certain beneficial aspects of blended learning, offering lecture content in videos, and saving class time for working out problems and finding solutions with the most appropriate tutor around – their teacher.
The biggest challenge to completing any homework assignment is essentially the student. Students value their free time as much as anybody, and for many the goal is not to learn, but to get the assignment over with. Students in the early 21st century are able to send pictures of their homework via text message to their friends who blindly copy answers and get credit for it. Students can claim they read the assigned chapter of their textbook whether they did or not,, and if the teacher gives a quiz to assess completion of this homework assignment, students can simply claim they did the homework but forgot the content.
The Flipped Classroom Model does a lot to efficiently appropriate class time and homework time to their maximum value, but only if the student is holding up their end of the deal at home. Often, the teacher is left wondering how much attention the student has paid to the videos given to watch as homework. Mastery Learning and Inductive Learning methods offer solutions teachers can use, and efforts have been made to assess the completion of Flipped Classroom homework through the use of web based platforms such as edmodo, schoology, google forms/docs, educanon, etc. But in no case do any of these platforms actually make focusing, or paying attention, the quickest and easiest way to get through web based assignments. The purpose of this project is to build a website that a teacher can use to achieve this goal while teaching a course following the Mastery Learning model, the Flipped Classroom, or Inductive Learning, with the ability to integrate all three seamlessly.
There has been a lot of research done around Inductive Learning, Mastery Learning, and Flipped Learning, all three of which will be utilized in this overall project. The theoretical rationale behind any of the Inductive Learning models is constructivism, and the learning theory that suggests a benefit to organizing class content under the Flipped model is that of cognitivism. However, Mastery Learning, as well as this project’s efforts to change students’ initial approach to homework, is founded in the theoretical rationale that is behaviorism. All three of these learning theories will be addressed.
Operant Conditioning was a method developed by B.F. Skinner in 1937. Operant in this context refers to the voluntary nature of the subject’s actions, and Conditioning simply means that these voluntary actions are being directly related to a reward or punishment to try to achieve a desired behavior. Operant Conditioning is in contrast to Classical Conditioning, which deals with involuntary actions (Garren et al., 2013).
Benjamin Bloom hypothesized in 1968 that his newly coined term Mastery Learning would allow all learners to succeed, progressing at their own pace. His concept of Mastery Learning is founded in behaviorism, and more specifically operant conditioning. With operant conditioning, the subject being conditioned is actually experiencing a reward for the desired behavior, and receives no reward (or punishment) for the undesired behavior (Ertmer et al., 1993). In the case of Mastery Learning, the reward is being allowed to move on to another lesson. Until the student proves mastery, he or she does not receive the reward of being able to move on (Guskey, 2005).
The educational learning theory of Cognitivism, developed and shaped largely by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, says that human knowledge is gained through use of one’s cognitive abilities. The human brain has many cognitive abilities, but when a student uses his or her brain to recognize, recall, or apply information, it strengthens the synapses in the brain related to existing information, and helps to add new information as it is connected to the brain’s existing knowledge base (Haugeland, 1978). Information and cognitive abilities must exist in the brain and be used in generating new information. This is the theoretical rationale for the flipped classroom, assuming a student is ready to view the video lesson assigned, and will need to recognize, recall, and apply that knowledge in the classroom. It is also the theoretical rationale for Inductive Learning (project based, problem based, case based, and Just-in-time teaching) as these models all provide meaning that is used in strengthening knowledge.
Constructivism is the learning theory which claims that learning happens when one is actively engaged in an experience and relates it to their existing knowledge from previous experiences. (Ertmer, 1993). According to constructivism, information is taken in, processed, compared, and contrasted with the existing framework of the brain, and then new knowledge comes into existence as a result. Constructivism was founded by Jean Piaget, who was lead to this by his belief that interaction with others plays a vital role in cognitive development (Wadsworth, 1996). Constructivism is often seen as the theoretical rationale behind active learning, or learning by doing. Similarly, it is also seen as the theoretical rationale behind inductive learning (Prince, et al. 2006).
The theoretical formulation of the mastery learning model is attributed to Benjamin Bloom, a mid-20th century researcher and education enthusiast. He believed that all students are capable of learning, and that the role of the teacher should be to design the lesson to fit the students’ needs. (Gusky, 2005) He believed that a student should learn at their own individual pace, and that the amount of time needed to learn distinguishes one student’s aptitude from another’s. Bloom also believed that a student’s ability to learn faster and deeper than another on a given topic or unit did not indicate that student had more academic or cognitive potential, but instead, that they were better prepared for the topic by having mastered other topics which he saw as sequential prerequisites (Zimmerman, 2008).
Students all have varying levels of cognitive preparation and abilities, which presented Bloom not only a reason to develop the theory of mastery learning, but also presented the challenges of how to actually structure a class in order to utilize this theory. In Bloom’s model of mastery learning, the class spends time as a whole learning a given unit of content by reading, listening to lectures, and participating in discussions. An assessment is then given, and the teacher receives data indicating which students performed well, and which students did not. Bloom’s model suggests that students who performed well should take on other enrichment activities that are still within the same topic or content area that they just mastered, while the students who did not perform well, do remedial work. This remedial work could include different text, discussions, videos to watch, or online lessons to complete. but it is focused on the subtopics or concepts that they need additional help mastering, as indicated by the first assessment. The remedial group would then take a second test, which serves as a second opportunity to prove mastery, which should provide motivation for the student to do well. Once the whole class has mastered the content, then they can move on to another topic or unit together (Bloom, 1971).
To come up with this approach in the classroom, Bloom considered what an excellent tutor would do when paired with one student. The tutor would explain how to do something, and then check for understanding, point out errors, make corrections, reteach wherever there is a gap in understanding, and reassess learning. Essentially, Bloom was suggesting not to use tests as only summative assessments which mark the end of a unit, but to use them as formative assessments so that misunderstandings can be identified and corrected (Bloom, 1971).
T.R. Guskey cited research suggesting that implementing mastery learning properly not only benefits students learning, cognitive abilities, and performance ratings in school, but also increases students’ self-confidence, attitude toward learning, and attendance rates, which are all things that can help struggling schools today (Guskey, 2007).
Flipped learning comes from the idea of swapping what is traditionally class work with what is traditionally homework. Class time was when a student would view and hear a lecture or lesson, and homework time was when a student would apply the knowledge gained from the classroom experience. Two educators from Colorado, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, are considered to have pioneered the flipped classroom movement in 2006 applying the idea to a chemistry class (Tucker, 2012). Bergmann was the district technology facilitator, and Sams was his former fellow teacher. Together, they asked themselves what the best use of their face-to-face class time was, and decided that helping students work through problems and answering their questions was better than observing a lesson that could just as easily be prerecorded and watched elsewhere. This would also make it possible for students to take more time if they need to, or move faster if they can (Bergmann, 2014). There have been some criticisms and flaws identified by some teachers in their implementation of this strategy though, such as not knowing for sure whether or not the students are watching the videos, and that the ability for students to pace themselves can sometimes allow students to pace themselves at a stand-still (Ash, 2012).
Some unforeseen outcomes came to light after some teachers implemented their own version of the flipped classroom model. These teachers were providing recordings of lectures in case students have to miss class, but were not assigning them as homework, and surprisingly, many of the students who did not miss class appreciated the opportunity to see the lectures again. Also, some implementations of the flipped classroom have allowed teachers to spend more time engaging students in class who had previously struggled with the work and acted out in class, and allowed more advanced students who used to be the ones engaging in class discussions to work independently. Virtually all teachers who use the flipped model agree, it is not the videos on their own that make the model effective, but how the videos are integrated into the overall approach, structure, and learning environment that makes the difference (Tucker, 2012).
Others have voiced caution to teachers who may think that flipping a classroom will fix everything. Students who are new to the flipped approach might be resistant to the change of not getting the instruction they are used to at school, and teachers might experience a learning curve when it comes to tailoring in-class projects and activities to the videos, or tailoring the videos to be exactly what the in-class activity requires (Herreid, 2013). The student will not likely be thoughtful about the video content without these reflective activities. The student also might not see the relevance or know why they need to watch the videos. Whether it is because the information will be on a test or the information will be useful in life, a struggling student won’t likely be motivated by these things. It would be far better to have reasons built-in to the curriculum for watching the videos and learning the material. There are several pedagogical models that can be combined with the flipped classroom to achieve the "need to know" aspect of a teacher’s approach (Miller, 2012).
The counterpart of inductive teaching is deductive teaching, and it is the most traditional approach in education of the two. Students start with lecture, then practice what was learned to work out problems for homework and/or class work, and finally try to perform well on a test to show what was learned before moving on to a new, potentially unrelated topic. One of the criticisms of deductive teaching is that it provides no reason, or intrinsic motivation through real world application or projects. Instead, the reason for learning the material is oftentimes a promise that it will be important someday, either later in the course or later in life. Studies have shown that students are less interested and less motivated without a solid reason why they need to know the given material at the time it is being taught (Prince, et al. 2007).
Inductive teaching, on the other hand, includes pedagogical classroom models such as Just-in-Time Teaching, Project Based Learning, Problem Based Learning, Case Based Learning, Inquiry Based Learning, and Discovery Learning. These methods all have one thing in common; the teacher begins by presenting the students with a challenge of some sort, and the learning follows. In other words, teaching doesn’t start until the need to know the information or skill is established, making the learning inductive. Inductive teaching is also considered to be a student centered constructivist approach, where more of the responsibility of learning is placed on the student than in the traditional deductive approach (Prince, et al. 2006).
Two of these sound very similar – Problem based, and project based learning. The term PBL could oftentimes be used to refer to either of them, but they are very different approaches. Of the two, project based learning in general requires the students to make or produce something, and the students presumably need to acquire knowledge and/or skill to do so. Problem based learning is much more difficult to implement. Problems require solutions, and generally the problems are open-ended and ill-defined. Students usually work in teams with this method, and need to precisely define the problem, figure out what it is they need to learn and how they are going to learn it, and then construct a solution (Savery, 2006).
With inquiry based and discovery based learning, students are presented with a challenge they need to find a solution to. With inquiry based learning, the challenge would be connected to previously known material, and the student would have access to the specific lectures and reading associated with the challenge to further develop their understanding. With discovery based learning, the students are on their own to work out solutions. The instructor may provide feedback to the students, but it would generally be minimal (Kirschner, 2006).
With Just-in-Time Teaching, students respond to conceptual questions based around the topic of a lesson before each class, then the instructor identifies misconceptions and addresses them in class (Rhem, 2010). This is inductive because the conceptual questions asked before class, are not connected to previously covered material. This is fairly demanding on the part of the instructor since conceptual questions must be formulated, a system needs to be in place to allow the instructor to review the responses before class, and the lesson plans need to be flexible enough to allow all of the recently identified misconceptions to be addressed in class.
The purpose of this project is to build a website that teachers can use to effortlessly hold students accountable for completing their online homework. Courses can follow the mastery learning model, the flipped classroom, or one of the inductive learning models, and still have the ability to seamlessly integrate all three of these together.
Mastery learning was developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1968. It is based in the theory of behaviorism and operant conditioning, as the student receives a reward for the desired behavior and no reward for undesired behavior. The desired behavior is that the student learns, and the reward is recognition of learning and being allowed to move on to the next topic. Mastery learning took the concept of a test and changed it from something that labels you with how much you learned, and changed it to something that determines what you will learn. Bloom suggested specific ways to implement mastery learning in the classroom, and studies have shown that students not only learn effectively under this model, but their attitudes toward school and learning improve tremendously.
The Flipped Classroom is a growing trend in education today. Lecture, traditionally found in the classroom, is recorded on video to be watched at home, and what is traditionally homework, is done in class. This provides each student the opportunity to have equal access to help. Otherwise, if homework is completed at home, access to help is varies greatly student to student. This model is based in the theory of cognitivism, as the student is expected to recognize, recall, and apply information from the videos in class. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, are considered to have pioneered the flipped classroom movement in 2006, although it is certainly not the first time watching a video was assigned for homework. One of the main drawbacks of the flipped classroom include difficulty in determining whether or not an individual actually watched and paid attention to the videos. However the biggest advantage is that students are able to watch lectures over and over again if they choose.
Inductive teaching is any method that provides a reason to learn, through real world applications or projects. The reason often given by teachers for learning a particular subject is that it will be important someday, either later in the course or later in life. Studies have shown that students are less interested and less motivated without a solid reason why they need to know the given material at the time it is being taught. Inductive teaching includes many pedagogical classroom models which each has its own history, such as Just-in-Time Teaching, Project Based Learning, Problem Based Learning, Case Based Learning, Inquiry Based Learning, and Discovery Learning. These methods all have one thing in common: the teacher begins by presenting the students with a challenge of some sort, and the learning follows. In other words, teaching doesn’t start until the need to know the information or skill is established, making the learning inductive. Inductive teaching is considered to be a student centered constructivist approach, where more of the responsibility of learning is placed on the student than in the traditional deductive approach.