The Next Generation

Flipped Learning has been reinventing itself right under our noses — evolving organically into something new and exciting. Early adopters and keen observers are following the changes taking place in Flipped Learning. However, our data indicate that as high as 80 percent of experienced Flipped Learning practitioners are unaware that Flipped Learning has entered a new era. The new era is defined by a growing awareness of five developments:

1. Not Static

There’s a largely unspoken, but widespread belief that Flipped Learning is a simple, static teaching strategy. Watch the video at home, and come to class prepared to do something with what you’ve learned. What else is there to know? A lot. The frenetic dynamism of Flipped Learning is largely hidden below the surface. To see it, you have to peer behind closed classroom doors, find portals into remote academic silos, and gain access to private back-channel discussions. Our eyes have been opened, and we now know that the science, art, and practice of Flipped Learning are more dynamic and changing more rapidly than even the most experienced and knowledgeable Flipped Learning advocates realize. But why?

2. The Big Three Factors

The ground underneath Flipped Learning is shifting because of three tectonic forces changing the field of Flipped Learning every day.

- Research
- Classroom Innovation
- New technology

Research: The scope of research being done on Flipped Learning is staggering. The global research being translated into new books and multiple languages is equally astounding. More importantly, researchers on the leading edge of Flipped Learning have shifted their focus from asking, does Flipped Learning work? The question they are now exploring is, what factors make Flipped Learning work better?

Classroom Innovation: The second force driving the evolution of Flipped Learning is happening in classrooms where creative teachers are pumping out an endless stream of innovative ways to use the group space. For example, Matthew Stratmann, an FLGI Flipped Learning Master Teacher, recently blew our minds as he shared some of the innovative strategies he’s using with his 12th graders. You can hear his story and scores of others on the Flipped Learning Worldwide podcast.

Matthew’s story is not atypical. Indeed we hear more of these stories than we’ve been able to cover. But there’s more. The practice of Flipped Learning is being “localized” to fit diverse cultures around the world giving rise to new hybrid forms and techniques.

Technology: The final factor animating Flipped Learning is technology. Education technology developers are innovating, iterating and introducing a blizzard of new features that make Flipped Learning easier to start, manage and evaluate. In fact, a new group of Certified Flipped Learning technologists are now collaborating with FLGI researchers and Master teachers to create the next generation’s Flipped Learning tools and resources. If they achieve a fraction of what they are developing, they will have a game-changing impact on Flipped Learning.

Before 2016, we saw these factors in the side view mirror. We had no idea how vastly, deeply or quickly these forces were reshaping the Flipped Learning road ahead. We’re now closely watching these three elements through the front windshield, and the landscape is evolving rapidly.

3. A Global Movement

Our research has confirmed that Flipped Learning is rapidly expanding around the globe. Indeed, Flipped Learning may very well be the most established, robust and organically expanding education movement in the world. READ MORE...

4. New Possibilities

The worldwide demand for Flipped Learning is opening new possibilities for educators. Educators who have been flipping in isolation are discovering the value of building bridges between the silos of Flipped Learning around the globe. READ MORE...

5. The Big Idea

Reports, hard data, anecdotes, and news stories are streaming in from scores of countries around the globe. Flipped Learning is solving some of the most intractable problems in education. Indeed, many are realizing that Flipped Learning is not just another teaching tactic but a meta-teaching strategy that supports all others. Flipped Learning is a meta-strategy because it’s a framework that creates *the class time* for all other instructional strategies from project-based learning, inquiry learning, game-based learning, mastery learning, makerspaces, and the myriad other active learning strategies. Flipped learning also provides the essential roadmap for the effective application of education technology.

A New Era

Increasingly, leading flipped practitioners are starting to recognize the significant difference between the original Flipped Learning model, blended learning, Flipped Mastery, and the next era we call Flipped Learning 3.0. The evolving framework, expanding research, collaborative classroom innovation, new technologies, and global possibilities are the distinguishing features of Flipped Learning 3.0. For further understanding listen to the interview with Research Fellow Professors Robert Talbert. Flipped Learning 3.0: The Paradigm Shift That Changes Everything

You can stay abreast of the evolution of Flipped Learning 3.0 through the FLGI webinar series, and by joining the Flipped Learning Innovation Center (FLIC).

Flipped Learning is not just another teaching tactic. Flipped Learning is a meta-instructional strategy because it’s a framework that creates *the class time* to enable all other instructional strategies from project-based learning, inquiry learning, game-based learning, mastery learning, makerspaces, and the myriad other active learning strategies. Flipped learning also provides the missing roadmap for the effective application of education technology.