About the project
How to get students to be more active in the lectures? How to focus more on the learning process and understanding, instead of the outcome (i.e., exam grade) only? How to utilize technology more efficiently in teaching? These were the key questions raised before the project started. Would going from traditional teacher-centred classroom towards flipped and student-centred classroom help us to answer these questions?
Objectives
The aim of the project is to start to develop and implement the flipped classroom method in one course (SPED4400) provided for master students at the Department of Special Needs Education during autumn 2019.
There are two parts in the project:
In part one, we will do an excursion to Finland, to learn more about flipped classroom/learning. At the University of Eastern Finland, flipped classroom has been used as a teaching method at many different departments, ranging from education to physics, with very positive experiences and learning results. You can read more about our trip to Finland here.
The take-aways from the visit to Finland will be used in planning and implementing teaching practices for one course in autumn 2019 (Part II). The course, in which we will apply the flipped classroom method, will focus on development of mathematical skills and mathematical learning difficulties. The course will last the whole autumn semester. Traditionally, the course has had several lectures, a course assignment and a final exam. In this project we aim to flip the teaching so that the teaching includes online lectures (videos, which can be watched flexibly at any time anywhere), contact sessions emphasizing peer learning, and various learning assignments during the course. Canvas will be used as a learning platform, which enables us to structure the course, share all materials, have discussions with students, quizzes, etc.
Outcomes
We expect that the students are more engaged and active in the course once it is delivered using the flipped classroom approach, and thus good learning outcomes are achieved. We expect that the chosen technological tools and methods will partly help in reaching this goal. Students are asked to evaluate the course in the beginning, midway and in the end of the course.
We will report our flipped classroom journey by writing some news on a regular basis. By the end of the project, a seminar will be given, and experiences shared at the faculty level.
Financing
Department of Special Needs Education (Part I), 2019
Faculty of Educational Sciences (Part II), 2019
