A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
Due to the success of the use of lecture flipping in a range of disciplines around the world we piloted the use of the technique last year at the University of Birmingham in a cross-College initiative involving the Schools of Biosciences and Chemistry. A number of lectures that had previously been taught traditionally were flipped – the content was delivered in advance of teaching sessions through for example screen or videocasts with accompanying online multiple choice and free text questions to assess students’ knowledge and any areas of difficulty prior to face-to-face sessions (in accordance with the “Just-in-Time” teaching approach pioneered by Novak Patterson Gavrin and Christian). This then enabled the face-to-face sessions to become completely interactive with a focus on areas which students had identified as being more troublesome as well as interactive problem solving through the use of appropriate clicker questions (including the use of Mazur’s “Peer Instruction” technique) in addition to discussion around questions from previous examination papers. Following the success of the pilot project we are now conducting a pedagogic research study through which we are investigating student engagement with experience of and learning through using a flipped teaching approach. Our presentation will discuss our experience and findings to date and will detail the results of our evaluations.
