Flipping the classroom

Anne Cathrine Gotaas, Sandvika Further Education College, Norway

This flipped classroom concept is simple: students study the theory at home and use classroom time to put their newly gained knowledge into practice. Anne Cathrine delivers flipped classroom teaching to her students by creating videos, animations and other resources and adding them to the relevant itslearning course.

The videos are embedded into a test and students must answer one or two questions after watching the video. The student will then see if she has understood the video or if she has to watch it again. This technique also means that Anne Cathrine can see which areas have caused problems for her students – and she can prepare her classroom lessons accordingly. She can also track which students have watched or read the materials and which haven’t.

Improving behaviour among disaffected students

Dee Kerwick-Chrisp, Greys Education Centre, UK

Greys Education Centre takes the students that other schools deem too hard to teach. With these students, encouraging good behaviour is usually vital to successful learning.

Once a week, every student meets with a teacher to set their behaviour goals, which are then added to the student’s individual learning plan (ILP). Then, at the end of each lesson, the class teacher refers to the student’s ILP before assigning the student a behaviour grade (using a 1-5 scale that only reflects good behaviour).

Any student with an average above 3.2 for the week can enjoy a free lesson – and the student with the best score gets a certificate. This reward system has proven extremely successful, with students competing with each other to get the best score. The student’s weekly behaviour report is also printed out and sent to their parents – and the reports are sometimes used as evidence that students are adhering to court orders.