A classroom is a place to deliver and grasp knowledge. It proves to be a very important element for every society as the children and youth that are the future generations of a nation are brought up in these classrooms. The teachers are pivotal to this transformation as they impart knowledge to the students along with inculcating the morals and values that reflect in their societal behavior. Over time, a lot has been discussed over the teaching methods, pedagogy and the change in the teaching pattern. With the advent of technology, teaching as a profession has evolved and includes better-sophisticated aids to demonstrate and explain the basic concepts to the students. In the similar context comes a very important question what is a better medium of teaching. Traditional classrooms or flipped classrooms; Let us first understand what is the meaning of these two.
Traditional Classroom
A traditional classroom didn’t change much as years passed. These days traditional classrooms are still filled with desks, chairs, and posters with learning material. They also have chalkboard and bookshelves.
Of course, some of these classrooms have materials that can be given to students during certain lessons (for example, chemicals in a chemistry class), but not always. A traditional classroom is more about learning and less about practice: students come here to listen to teacher’s lectures and then practice the given material at home while doing homework. Most of the information in a traditional classroom comes from a teacher; they also control and direct all class discussions.
In traditional classroom students usually receive less feedback, because their home assignments most often are graded by teacher outside of the class and a teacher doesn’t always have time to comment them in details.
Flipped Classroom
Flipped classrooms turn traditional educational process upside down, allowing students to educate outside of the school. Students receive all necessary learning materials and study at home. The class in flipped teaching is the place to practice: students come to it already well prepared and do various assignments to polish their freshly gained knowledge. They can work in groups, conduct various experiments, start discussions and analyze different materials. A teacher in flipped classroom is more a tutor than a lecturer: they help, direct and give feedback, but they aren’t the main source of information. Moreover, students in flipped classroom receive more feedback, because their work is graded and commented right away.
Flipped classroom allows students to not only gain knowledge, but also to develop others important skills: they learn how to work with information, how to study on their own, how to become more disciplined, and so on.
What is better? Traditional classroom or Flipped classroom?
The appearance of a flipped classroom isn’t surprising: the educational system has to develop and improve, just like every other. The whole concept of a flipped classroom is well thought, though still has to be improved: they cannot be used effectively by all students just the way they are.
Traditional classrooms will always be better than flipped classrooms for elementary to high school
Little children learn fast. However, they may find it hard to study on their own, without any help and guidance. Child’s basic personality and socialization skills are shaped during first school years, that’s why it is essential for preschool and elementary schools to teach children in a traditional way. A child is able to learn basic principles of punctuality, discipline, respect and develop necessary social skills in a traditional classroom. Moreover, first school years can be stressful enough for a child who didn’t socialize much before. Some children are very active, while the others are shy and afraid to speak their opinion in public. That’s why they can easily fall behind and get stressed in a flipped classroom, being too shy and scared of public speaking.
Traditional classroom has what little children require the most: a human touch. While the older children can learn effectively using various gadgets, the little ones need attention and help while learning. Sure, parents can give them enough love and support, but they aren’t always able to teach their kids well: some lose their patience easily, some have troubles explaining things to a child. That’s why a professional teacher is always better.
Flipped classrooms have many advantages but its effectiveness depends on how it is used.
Flipped classrooms are great for older children, who understand the basics of learning process already. Such classrooms allow them to gain deeper knowledge and to explore subjects they like the most.
Of course, a transition from traditional to flipped classroom can be a tough challenge: at first, students will need to discipline themselves, spend a lot of time learning things. However, they’d already got used to the whole studying process, so this won’t be unbearable. Moreover, sometimes learning requires less time than completing different home assignments (especially if a student is smart).
Flipped classrooms also allow students to learn how to speak better, how to present themselves well, how to do public speaking and how to argument their point of view with confidence. Moreover, some assignments in flipped classroom require teamwork: this skill will become very useful to students in the future.
Older children start trusting their teacher less; they usually want to become more independent too. That’s why flipped classrooms are a great option for them: they allow every student to study in the most comfortable and convenient way. Students, who want to research some topic deeper, can do this at home, while those, who don’t like a subject much, can settle with a minimal necessary amount of studying.
Flipped classroom tries to take the fact that some students learn quickly than the others into consideration. That’s why educational videos that are used in flipped classroom allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the subjects taught. Moreover, a student is able to watch a certain video multiple times to understand the subject better, while in a traditional classroom it would be hard for a teacher to explain a certain concept a couple of times for every student.
Human Touch
Modern learning is no longer limited to a classroom or to a certain teacher’s knowledge: any information a student needs is usually just a click away. However, this information isn’t always relevant or well delivered. It may take time for a student to understand it and to check whether an information is correct or not. That’s why we still need classrooms in any form: no matter how a student learns, they’ll always have a teacher to help and to explain everything to them.
That’s why work in every type of classroom still depends on a teacher a lot. A good
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