Flipped Learning from the Evidence Based Perspective Geoff Petty Draft 3 Dec 2014

What is flipped learning or the flipped classroom?

Definition from ‘www.flippedlearning.org’: “Flipped Learning is a pedagogical approach in which direct

instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group
space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students
as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.”

There is little evidence this approach works well, and I have some doubts about it. Independent Learning
(Chapter 33 Teaching Today) is a similar approach that has much more evidence on its side. But how
would you do flipped learning from an evidence-based perspective? I worked with Singapore Polytechnic
on a project to look at this, and the materials below came out of this project. The teachers in the project
found flipped learning worked very well using something like the following approach, but of course they
had students on Higher Education courses, reasonably able to learn alone.

I see flipped learning as a three-stage process:

Stage 1 Outside of classroom:

The students familiarise themselves with the basic concepts and key facts, at the level of
knowledge and basic comprehension only. The teacher usually provides resources which
explain these basics, e.g. reading, or the teacher’s own video. There might be some
basic understanding of how this knowledge is applied, for example in mathematics. This
work is done outside of class time.

Stage 2 In the classroom

The teacher ensures queries are answered, and Stage 1 learning might be checked. Then
there is exploration of the content using critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity such as
design and development of a strategy etc, real-life application, and/or an analysis of the
material from different points of view, etc. Students are now working towards the top of
Bloom’s Taxonomy and are collaborating, and there is dialogue.

Stage 3 Further independent work

After the classroom exploration there might be further independent work

Some Issues with Flipped Learning

The main issues seem to be the following, but I think it may be possible to design flipped learning in a way
that overcomes them, in some contexts at least. I might be wrong though:

 Stage 1 not done by some. At least a proportion of students will not look at the stage I materials or
do its activities. These may be the least motivated and least able students. Without completing
stage one, the stage II activities will be hard to comprehend, and the student will leave with a weak
understanding of the topic as a whole. Will this method disadvantage the weakest or least
motivated students compared to traditional methods?
  Potential for a lack of sufficient formative assessment in stage 1. Learners of all types, even when
learning at the low-level knowledge and comprehension level, require their learning to be checked
and corrected, they need to fix errors and omissions in their learning (formative assessment), they
may need support or reassurance. Students can do some of this for themselves but at least some
will need activities that encourage formative assessment, and a source for help with queries.

 Potential lack of dialogue in stage 1. Learning is often more effective in a social context, with high-
quality dialogue focused on the main concepts and ideas. Students learn by both talking and
listening during this dialogue.

 Time consuming for teacher at first. Creating the stage 1 materials in particular, if they are to be
high quality, will take a great deal of time.

Stage one materials may be video lectures or video demonstrations etc, or other web-based or Virtual
Learning Environment materials (e.g. Moodle), or handouts, reading from books and journals etc. These
need to be of a high quality if students are to learn from them without teacher support, and ideally they
need embedded formative assessment which ‘finds faults, fixes, and follows up’ to check the fix has been
made.

Lets look at how we might use evidence-based approaches to solve the above problems.

The flipped classroom using evidence-based teaching approaches

Overarching issues

It is vital that there is student dialogue throughout the flipped learning experience. I would strongly
recommend setting up learning teams (search for ‘geoff petty learning teams’ for a paper on this). Then
students who are stuck have someone they can ring, email, or meet in person to ask for help. Also, students
can discuss answers to your self-assessment questions if you set any.

Orientation at the very beginning of stage 1 (outside the classroom)

The following help the students to understand what is being learned and why, and what they will have to
do with their learning. These all have high effect-sizes, meaning that repeated rigorous experiments with a
control and experimental group have found that students learning by this method do much better than
similar students learning without that method. See ‘Evidence Based Teaching’ Geoff Petty.

Summary in advance: At the beginning of the topic give an advance organiser summarising the main points
of what is being studied and why. Stress its importance.

Check on prior learning: any learning which is a prerequisite for this topic should be checked and
corrected, any intellectual skills that will be used, e.g. data analysis, during the sessions should again be
checked and corrected. This ensures the foundations are sound before you build new learning upon them.
One way to do this is to ask preparatory questions where students must recall or reuse any relevant prior
learning. If they do badly on these they are asked to revise this learning before looking at Stage 1 materials.
Set goals or tasks in advance. Describe in outline what the student will actually do in stage 2 and 3 (if there
is a stage 3). For example:

"You will need to prepare for a debate on this topic, you might be asked to take either side"

“You will need to be able to solve problems such as this…….”

“You will need to peer assess solutions to problems such as this….., and justify your evaluation of
your peer’s work”

“You will need to present your solution to Problem Three to the class with full justification, and
respond to the class’s critique.”

As ever, it helps if there is an ‘audience’ for the students work, other than the teacher, e.g. peers

Stage 1 materials

Try to make use of EBT methods here, rather than just posting a video for students to watch. Students
need to engage with the material you provide and so there needs to be some tasks. These have the added
advantage that completed tasks show that students have participated during stage 1. The following tasks
all have high effect sizes:

 Studying worked examples (see later in this and the next method)

 peer explaining worked examples,

 creating graphic organisers that summarise the key points in the presentation. (See my Evidence
Based Teaching for this and for the next method)

 Decisions-decisions games,

 Mazur’s ‘Peer Instruction’ materials or Dylan Wiliam’s ‘diagnostic questions’.

 etc. See my Evidence Based Teaching for many other methods.

It obviously helps to have some evidence as to whether students have made correct use of your stage 1
materials.

Don’t rule out students studying stage 1 materials together in a resource centre, perhaps in learning teams.
Dialogue is very powerful.

Formative Assessment of Stage 1 Learning

Students could take a quiz, but they will need to understand what and why they got wrong, and at least in
mathematics, redo these questions to get the correct answers.

Even better, arguably, would be to use ‘diagnostic questions’ as described below. Class discussion could be
done on-line if a synchronous discussion could be set up. Research on elearning finds synchronus discussion
to be more effective than students joining discussion at a time that suits them (‘asynchronous discussion’)

It would help if students could deal with their problems with a ‘study buddy’ who understood that aspect of
the lesson. One way to do this would be to ask students to self-asses their confidence to explain certain
issues or questions and post this on-line. This key might help:

red – I don’t understand

 amber – I think I get it

green – I understand this, and could explain it to others

Then students who were ‘red’ (stuck) would know who to contact (any ‘green’ student) to get their
problems dealt with. The colours would also give you an impression of confidence or lack of it.

Mastery Learning might help, where students keep taking simple tests at the level of knowledge and simple
comprehension on the key points until they ‘pass’. Pass rates are high, say 8/10, as the material is simple.
If they don’t pass they do remedial work, perhaps supported by Learning Teams. There is an inherent
danger with this method if it is seen by students to be the main assessment method. They will tend to try to
memorise without understanding the tested materials rather than strive for deep understanding, so the
method needs to be used with care and in balance with more challenging assessments.

See also my paper on e-learning by using EBT methods (search for ‘e-learning geoff petty’)

Stage 2

The first job is for you to respond to the difficulties that students had with Stage 1. This is made much more
effective if activities were set in stage 1, e.g. a quiz.

This stage is less problematical as it is more conventional teaching. Any methods in ‘Evidence Based
Teaching’ would help here. Some of the methods listed later in this paper would be worth a try. There are
some methods that work well for maths later in this paper.

Consider having a quiz at the end of this stage too, and/or anonymous responses to ‘What did you find
most difficult?’ Then you can respond to the difficulties you have discovered with a home-video.

Stage 3

Students now do individual work on this same topic, again a fairly conventional teaching strategy. I still
think learning teams will help a great deal here, as we have the same difficulty as in stage 1 which is that
learners who are stuck may not have anyone to turn to.

Evaluating Flipped Learning

Is your flipped learning approach working? Consider:

1. Your own self evaluation of your approach to flipped learning, including your response to the ideas
mentioned above

2. Student satisfaction questionnaire: have they enjoyed it; have they learned better from it than
from a more conventional pedagogical structure? If not do they need more practice, or would a
better structure be preferable.

3. Qualitative review of learning quality: Was student learning deeper with this approach than it
would likely have been using a more conventional approach? Did students learn better how to
tackle more challenging questions?
 4. What changes would improve your use of flipped learning? This assumes you want to persist with
the strategy of course. The purpose of evaluation here is not to measure the effectiveness of
flipped learning compared to alternatives, but mainly to improve teaching and learning.

Some Stage 2 Methods

Stage 2 involves high order reasoning, creativity, analysis etc. So class discussion has been found
to be the best method here.

Please don’t worry about the context of the methods in the explanations I give below, if you can
see past these you will soon see that the methods would work well in your own context too. One
of the surprising findings of the research on the best teaching methods is that context does not
stop a method working, only requires the teacher to be creative in adapting the method
sufficiently to work in their own context.

Interactivity is a vital component of good teaching. Researchers found teachers who were in the
top one percent of all teachers nationally for six years running in terms of value added. They did
not use conventional questioning strategies, but used something like 'assertive questioning'
(below) instead. Assertive questioning is part of ‘whole class interactive teaching’ (WCIT).
Professor John Hattie has synthesised and compared over 300,000 experiments to improve
student attainment, he finds WCIT and classroom discussion to be amongst the most powerful
methods available to teachers. See chapter 15 of 'Evidence Based Teaching' Geoff Petty.

Assertive Questioning
1. Buzz groups work on a thought provoking question.

2. The teacher monitors this work asking:

‘does everyone have an answer, ask me for a hint if not’

‘does anyone need more time?’

If a group does not respond to this offer of help they are ‘fair game’ for the next stage.

The teacher does not give the answer away if they do help a group.

3. The teacher nominates individuals to give their group’s answer, and to justify it: “why do
you think that?”. The teacher thanks the student for their answer, but does not evaluate
it. They might ask supplementary questions such as 'Does anybody agree with that
answer?' 'Has anybody got anything different?'.

4. The teacher gets a response from each group in this way, or at least a number of groups,
and then points out any inconsistencies between the groups’ answers if any. (If there
aren’t any, perhaps the question could have been more challenging, though in early
practice easy questions are helpful)

5. The aim now is to get the whole class to agree their ‘class answer(s)’. The teacher
encourages the class to discuss and evaluate their various answers, and to agree, and to
justify their ‘class answer’. Minority views are allowed, but the aim is consensus.
 6. Only when the class has agreed its answer does the teacher ‘give away’ the right answer,
or evaluate and comment on the answers given.

This method works whether there are right answers or whether different interpretations and
answers are likely e.g. in a critical appraisal of a painting.

(See the diagram below and ‘Whole Class Interactive Teaching’, chapter 24 in ‘Teaching Today’.)

We will learn best if we all work towards a “blame-free” classroom:

 It’s okay if you don’t fully understand a concept first time, learning takes time.
 what counts is whether you understand the question or task, and its answer eventually, not
whether you get it right first time
 I ask challenging questions so it is not humiliating to make a mistake. We all make mistakes
when we learn. Indeed that is part of how we learn. If we don’t make mistakes the work is
too easy for us to learn at our maximum rate.
 Mistakes are useful because they tell us where we can improve.
 If you make a mistake, bet your life half the class has made it too.
 It’s good for learning to say ‘I don’t understand’ and to ask for clarification.
 You should never ridicule another student for their mistakes, even in a joking way because you
wouldn’t like it if you were ridiculed, and because it stops us learning.
 You will only learn from mistakes if you find out how to do it without mistakes next time, and
really understand this.
 Let’s help each other! The helper learns at least as much as the helped.

Ground-rules like these are best established very early on, and are best developed Socratically by
asking students for their ideas for class ground-rules. “We all want to enjoy ourselves and we all
want to learn well, so what should be your ground-rules?” Note it is ‘your’ not ‘my’ ground-rules!
Student demonstration
This is an excellent method to test and develop students’ understanding of a simple skill such as
mathematics problem solving, punctuation, scientific reasoning, detection of imagery in a poem
etc. It is very similar to assertive questioning and is used routinely in Eastern European countries
and in Pacific Rim countries such as Taiwan and Singapore, which routinely achieve top ranking in
international comparisons.
Assertive questioning
must require the
Ask the question student to reason

clear and concise

wording

don’t give the

answer
away until the last stage
Monitor the
(below)
reasoning
use proximity

‘Does anyone need

Check for more time?
completion
‘Hands up if you don’t
have an answer’

Not just volunteers

Get some ... be unpredictable
answers about who you ask:.

“Do you agree? .. Why?”

The class
interrogates the “Can this answer be
answers improved?”

Only now is the

Teacher confirms answer given by the
the correct teacher
answer
“who else got the correct
answer?.. Well done!!”

Reinforcement:
thanks and praise
The method is used after a teacher demonstration of a practical or intellectual skill. The aim is to
check and correct understanding of a skill before all students practice it. It is initially a bit
daunting for students but they will greatly enjoy the method if you introduce them to it properly.
Use pair explaining first (see page ???” this prepares them for student demonstration very well.
After they have learned to use peer explaining well, set them tasks to do in pairs followed by a
student demonstration, perhaps asking for volunteers. Then move on to pair work followed by
you nominating the student to demonstrate. Give them fair warning in any changes.

The basic procedure for student demonstration is:

1. You set a task:

 “working in pairs, factorise 6x2 - 6x - 8”
 “Okay, in pairs, punctuate this paragraph”
 “Working by yourself this time, can you see any personification or metaphors in the third or
fourth verse of the poem?”

2. Students work on the task. This can be done in pairs initially, but after a bit of practice
they do tasks individually, perhaps checking each other’s completed answers in pairs.
They strive to get the answer, with any justification such as necessary reasoning or working
etc. If students are in pairs they make sure that either of them can provide this
justification.

3. You monitor the work. You check attention to task and occasionally ask:
 ‘Can everyone do this one?’
 ‘Can you all explain your answer?’
Students who can’t answer the question are required to own up and get help at this stage,
otherwise they are ‘fair game’ for the next stage.

4. You choose a student to demonstrate their answer to the rest of the class. If
students are in pairs you choose one student at random to give the pair’s answer. The
student gives their answer on the board, explaining each step and its justification to the
class. You ask questions to clarify, but do not yet evaluate the answer.
 “Why didn’t you use 6 and 1 as the factors of 6?”
 “Why did you choose a full stop and not a comma?”
 “So how did you choose between personification and metaphor?”

5. You ask for a ‘class answer’. You ask the class if they agree with the student’s answer
and its justification, or whether either could be improved. The aim is not to criticise the
student’s answer, but for the class to agree a ‘class answer’. The student who did the
demonstration becomes the class scribe, writing up any changes the class agrees to. You
again fascilitate without evaluating the answers or the arguments.
 “Why do you think it should be plus four and not minus?”
 “How many think it should be a comma? Why?”
 “So why exactly is it not a metaphor?”

6. You comment on the class answer. Praise any useful contributions and confirm any
correct reasoning, and correct any weak reasoning.

7. The process is repeated with another task, after sufficient practice the students can do
stage 2 as individuals rather than in pairs.

Students are often initially resistant to doing a demonstration if they are not used to it. So you
could make use of volunteers to begin with, but try to move on to students nominated by you as
soon as you can. They will be more confident of answers that they have produced in pairs, than
answers produced in isolation so when you first start nominating students do it after pair work.

All the arguments in favour of assertive questioning apply also to this method. You might like to
compare student demonstrations with other methods you use in similar situations, using the
criteria we used earlier in this chapter.

Participation Teacher’s Student Thinking

Rate feedback comfort time

Student
demonstration
My own
method(s)

Using mini white-boards

This is another brilliant way to get answers, and so feedback. It is possible to buy a class set of
A3, A4, or A5 whiteboards, each complete with a dry-wipe pen and eraser in a sealable plastic
wallet for just over a pound each. Or you can make your own sets by laminating card. Some
people argue that pale cream boards are better than white as this assists some dyslexic students
with no disadvantage to other students.

The idea was first invented in Primary schools but they are used everywhere now, including
university, though there is hi-tech version

To use the mini white-board.

It starts off very like students demonstration:
1. You set a task:
It works well to start off with students working in pairs, and with later tasks working
individually. Tell them if you are going to do this so they work towards their own
independence:
 Working in pairs to begin with, “factorise 6x 2 - 6x - 8”
 By yourself this time, Punctuate this sentence: “Some people such as farmers work
outside.”
 “Working by yourself this time, write down any phrase from verses three or four that
involves personification”
2. Students work on the task and write their answer on their board. Once students
have their answer
3. You check what is on the boards.
You ask students to hold up their boards all at the same time so that you can see their
answers. Students will crane their necks to see everyone else’s answers!

4. You ask students about their answers.

Students need to know not just whether they have the right answer, but whether they arrived at
the answer using the correct reasoning. So you can ask students ‘why’ they have the answer they
have:
That’s right Phil, why did you decide to put the comma where you did?

Alternatively you can withhold your evaluation of the answers to spark a class discussion:
“Okay, some of you have a comma after ‘people’ and others haven't. What do we think?”
Clearly you can get students to call out their answers and so dispense with the board.
“Okay, what is the first word in your sentence with a comma after it?”, but this will only work for
very simple questions. It is not that easy to get everyone to call out at the same time and it can
be noisy with some classes.

For more on mini-white board products: http://www.easyteach.co.uk/dry.html

For more on high-tech interactivity: http://www.einstruction.com/

Snowballing solutions to a challenging maths problem

This creates real dialogue, participation, and understanding. It needs to be done with supportive
ground rules, where errors are accepted without blame, and are seen as an opportunity to learn.
In recent studies with underachieving youngsters in low performing schools this method greatly
increased students’ interest and enjoyment of maths, and improved their average standardised
test results from 45% to 79%! However this degree of improvement took time, about 6 years, but
expect improvement of a sort quite quickly.

Explain the no-blame ground-rules above. Then give students a challenging maths question, one
they can attempt or get started on but which they often won’t be able to finish by themselves.

1. Individuals write down their own answer, or their attempt, working alone.
2. Students then share what they have written in groups of three or four. Each student
presents their attempt justifying it to the others. The others give constructive criticism about
the pros and cons of each approach after it has been presented.
3. Each group now decides which method is best and why, and presents it to the whole class
4. There is class discussion on which methods are best and why, this can be done assertive
questioning style, or student demonstration style as described above.
www.edutopia.org/math-underachieving-mathnext-rutgers-newark

An alternative is to use ‘snowballing’.

1. Individuals write down their own answer, or their

attempt, working alone.
2. Students pair up and show each other their work.
They give constructive criticism to each other,
and decide on their best method
3. Pairs form fours, which look at each pair’s
method and again give pros and cons and decide
on the best method. Leave time for this dialogue.
4. The teacher chooses individuals by name from
each group of four to present their solution/work
to the class, and to justify it to the class.
5. The class as a whole now scrutinizes each group’s work, and decides which method(s) are
best and why. This is now assertive questioning, or student demonstration.
Some more discussion methods for stage 2.

Stage 2 involves classroom discussion, and here are two methods that are used by many teachers
with very exceptional value added, they come from Doug Lemov’s book Teach Like a Champion.

No Opt-Out
This technique deals with a student who doesn’t know the answer, or who gets the answer wrong.

Here is a bit of dialogue showing the No Opt-Out technique being used to teach students how to
calculate percentages. The teacher has already explained and demonstrated the process, and is
now getting the class to calculate 7% of 320, with her guiding and writing on the board:

Teacher: What’s the first thing we do with this one? William?

William: Don’t know
Teacher: Carl?
Carl: We need to divide 320 by 100.
Teacher: Good, why?
Carl: Because dividing by 100 gets us 1 percent.
Teacher: So what’s this first thing we do William?
William: Divide by 100
Teacher: Yes. And why?
William: So we know what 1% is.

So the teacher goes back to the student who initially “failed”, to ask the question again.

Another example, this time a weak, Level 2 catering course.

Teacher: Why do we store food in a refrigerator? Harry?

Harry: To keep it cool.
Teacher: Yes, and why do we want it to cool?
Harry: Tastes better.
Teacher: Well, partly. Who can help Harry?
Alex: Germs don’t like it cold.
Teacher: What is the advantage of that? Susan?
Susan: Stops food poisoning.
Teacher: Why?
Susan: Because the bugs don’t grow in the cold.
….(remember it was Harry who gave the initial unsatisfactory answer)….
Teacher: Germs don’t grow in the cold. Okay Harry, so why do we use fridges?
Harry: To keep food cold so we don’t get food poisoning.
Teacher: And how does the cold stop food poisoning?
Harry: Because it stops the germs growing. The cold does.
Teacher: Excellent.
No Opt out in diagrammatic form:

Student Jo Teacher asks other Teacher keeps

can’t answer a students: asking questions of
question, or ‘Who can help Jo?’ the class until a
answers Pete contributes, but his satisfactory answer,
incorrectly answer is incomplete and its explanation
Can anyone add to are obtained.
Pete’s point?
Why (is that the answer)

Teacher asks Jo
the same question
again

Jo answers
correctly

Teacher indicates
answer is correct

Q1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this technique?

Q2. Could it be used for questions where there is no one right answer, e.g.
interpreting a poem?

3. Prepare an agreed statement, and a question about this technique

Further Reading
Doug Lemov (2010) ‘Teach Like a Champion’. Jossey-Bass

Champion Teachers make use of whole class interactive teaching and interactive dialogue, see:
Geoff Petty (2009) ‘Teaching Today’ 4th Ed. Nelson Thornes - see chapter 24 on Whole class Interactive
Teaching
Geoff Petty (2009) ‘Evidence Based Teaching’ 2nd Ed. Nelson Thornes – See chapter 9 on Whole Class
Interactive Teaching, and chapter 15 on dialogue, questioning, and the self correcting
Right is Right
Q1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this technique?
Q2. Could it be used for questions where there is no one right answer, e.g.
interpreting a poem?
3. Prepare an agreed statement, and a question about this technique

This technique can be used in conjunction with the No Opt Out technique, or on its own.

The idea is that the teacher questions the class until it comes up with a near perfect answer given
in scholarly language. Earlier answers are used as stepping-stones, and are gradually improved to
arrive at the near perfect answer. Here is some text from Lemov’s book, which he also provides in
video form, which shows the technique in action in a maths class:

Armstrong: We're going to do a couple of things with volume today. Then we're going to practice
volume and then surface area. Can someone give me a definition for volume to get us started?
Mark?

Mark: Volume is length times width times height

Armstrong: You're telling me how we're going to solve for volume. If you say “length times width
times height” you're giving me a calculation. What I want to know – and you probably know this
too, Mark – is what volume is. What is that amount? Yeritza?

Yeritza: Volume is the amount of square cubes that takes up something.

Armstrong: Okay but I want to refine what you said – “the amount of cubes”. What should we
say? What's the technical definition instead of just cubes? What were you going to say Wes?

Wes: The amount of cubic inches that a rectangle of prism or a three-dimensional figure takes up.
(Many teachers would have accepted this answer, or a previous one.)

Armstrong: Right, any three-dimensional figure. But I don't want to just say cubic inches because
it's not necessarily inches. It could be feet; it could be centimetres ; it could be yards…..

Wes: cubic units.

Armstrong: (writing on the overhead) so the amount of cubic units that an object takes up… and
Donte,I know you know the other word. What's the other word for “takes up”?

Donte: Occupies

Armstrong: Yes. Occupies. Volume is the amount of cubic units that an object occupies.

Above text from Doug Lemov (2010) ‘Teach Like a Champion’. Jossey-Bass
Right is Right technique in diagrammatic form:

Teacher An imperfect Teacher accepts any A near perfect

asks a answer is strengths, but explains answer is
question given one inadequacy in the given
answer, and asks the
class for an (if not the
improvement teacher
provides it
with
explanation)
An improved, but still
imperfect answer is
given

Q1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this technique?

Q2. Could it be used for questions where there is no one right answer, e.g.
interpreting a poem?

3. Prepare an agreed statement, and a question about this technique

Independent Learning
Flipped Learning is only one way of getting students to learn more effectively out of the classroom. Here is
another. See Chapter 17 of my 'Evidence Based Teaching' or better still Chapter 33 of my ‘Teaching Today’
which looks at the method in more detail. Independent Learning may be preferable to Flipped Learning
and is certainly an alternative.

26. Independent Learning Effect Size 0.75

1. Any easy section of the syllabus is identified and this is not taught.
2. Instead students are given an assignment which describes in detail what they must learn. More
experienced independent learners might need less direction.
3. Students work on this assignment outside of class time. Work is alone at first, but later tasks
require the student to work in pairs or small groups. The assignment activities are thought
provoking, and are not entirely ‘book and biro’. Visual representations and other methods above
make good tasks. At least one task requires students to go beyond the simple reproduction of the
ideas in the materials, and to apply their learning. This is to encourage deep learning, otherwise
students may simply collect information and write it down without really thinking about it, or
understanding it.
4. Students’ work is monitored by a designated ‘leader’ in their group or by the teacher if the
assignment is a long one. Short assignments are best at first though.
5. The students’ notes are not marked, (except perhaps in the first use of this method in order to
check their ability to make effective notes). Instead their learning is assessed by a short test. One
assignment task is to prepare for this. Optionally students can be required to retake tests, or do
other remedial work if their test result is unsatisfactory.
6. After completing this independent learning assignment, or indeed before, students use an
independent learning competences questionnaire to identify their weaknesses as an independent
learner, and to set themselves targets for their next independent learning assignment.
7. If learning teams are used, activities can be set to discuss questions you set, and to prepare for the
test.
8. Students take a test, which they knew was coming from the start, which tests basic understanding
of the key concepts. Some teachers use a ‘mastery learning approach with this test, that is, if a
student does not get a good mark on this test, they are required to do remedial work with peers,
and then to take it again until they pass. See Mastery Learning.
This is not an easy teaching method to use but it is greatly enjoyed by students if it is managed well. See
chapter 31 of ‘Teaching Today’ for a fuller description. See also ‘cooperative learning’ in Evidence Based
Teaching for similar methods.
 Independent Learning Skills Questionnaire
Questionnaire and competence record Name: ……………………………………………

Can’t or I do this I can do

When I am studying.... I have
this well
Books
don’t do sometimes

I can find suitable books in the library ........................

I can find the relevant sections using contents, ................

and index .......................

Non Book

I can find relevant journals and other non-book sources .....

I have used a journal index ....................................................

CD ROM & the internet

I find relevant material using logical searches ......................

I search the internet for reliable sites ......................................

I print out only vital material .................................................

I even read the material I print out! .......................................

Study Skills

I read in an interrogative way (with questions

in mind) ..................................................................................

I skim read ..............................................................................

I speed read ............................................................................

I make notes from my reading ..............................................

I make notes from my computer searches ...........................

I produce mind maps or other summaries ...........................

Coping Strategies

If I can't understand: I try harder ............................

or change resources ................

I recognise when I am stuck and change strategy ................

I have the courage to ask: a fellow student for help........

a lecturer for help ...................

 Can’t or I do this I can do
this well
don’t do sometimes
If I can't find suitable materials

I ask a librarian ...............

or a fellow student ........

or a lecturer ..................

Monitoring my learning

I self-test my own recall of important facts........................

I self-test my understanding ...............................................

I prepare well for a test .......................................................

I maintain concentration while studying ............................

I re-read tasks I am working on often ..................................

I interpret the brief correctly .................................................

and keep to it ..............

I think carefully about my learning strategies ...................

I am learning how to improve my learning ........................

Self Management

I find an attractive and practical place to study ............

I make good use of my time ................................................

I complete on time ..............................................................

I choose tasks appropriate to the time bearing in

mind tiredness etc) ................................................................

I apply new learning-to-learn action plans ........

I am responsive to the situation, e.g. if prevented from

doing task X, then I do task Y instead ................................

I make use of parallel working (doing X & Y together) .........

I make effective use of non lecture time ......…………………

Summary

State two things.......

...you find difficult about learning

... you enjoy about learning

... you do well

... you could improve next time

 Tuner
Geoff’s:
Patent Independent Learning
mark 3

The task: 3 weeks

4 assignment
6 4 6
worksheets
references 2 weeks
4 weeks
given tick
list
8 2 8
2
copy of test given in 1 week infinity
syllabus advance
only 10 0
non -
0
directed short long
directed term term
Resources: Difficulty:

very
Specified Uns pecified easy0 2 4 6 easy

Monitoring
: half-way check
by teacher
4 6 independent
self-tests learning
periods
2 8
self-tick checklist,
checklist student diary
10 close
distant 0

Assessment
:
assignment
grading 6
4 presentation
self-marked
test
test
exam
2 8
mastery
Teacher brain learning
power 1000V quiz
low heat 0 10 high heat