MS 012 5 Steps to Flipping your EMS classroom

“Flipping your class will not make teaching easier, but it will make it better.”

-Jon Bergmann

Educator-University of Colorado, Denver

            In today’s ever evolving and dynamic education environment, it is essential that educators change and evolve with new techniques and technologies. In EMS education, we have a diverse cross-section of students that require us to face the challenges of various learning styles. Education centers are staffed with educators from different background and with different levels of experience, as well as different teaching styles. This presents a challenge to EMS education, specifically there is a never-ending search to find best practices in education. Challenges we face are not limited to simply presenting information to students, but we must find ways to make the material interesting and digestible to the students we have. The changing paradigm of education and the availability of new information and data that is available to educators necessitates a different style of teaching to EMS students. The age-old style of the “sage on a stage” standing in the front of the classroom reading lectures from a PowerPoint slideshow is no longer a preferred method of information delivery. Today we will discuss different methods to implement a flipped classroom at your institution and how to work with your educators to make your system work better for your students.

  1. Plan your flipped classroom

Once you have decided to implement a flipped classroom dynamic, you must decide as an organization what that will mean for your classes. No two classrooms are the same, so it is essential for the leadership of the organization to have a series of in-depth conversations discussing that this change in dynamic will means for your organization. At this stage, the lead instructor of the facility should find or appoint instructors that are agreeable to a change in presentation format and involve them in the process. Take the time to gather resources and listen to ideas. Find what has worked and what has not worked at other facilities. Members of the leadership should reach out to other educators and discuss their methods and see if they can gather any insight that will aid in the implementation at your site.

  1. Educate Stakeholders

The stakeholders at your institution are the educators. The leadership that was established in step one will have to sit down with the educational staff and discuss what the change in education dynamic means to them and how to implement the changes. If your educators are not familiar with how a flipped classroom works, now is the time to involve them. If your organization has the ability, this is the time to send your educators to a course such as NAEMSE to familiarize them with the methods that are best practices in education, and are rapidly becoming the norm in education. This process may take place over the course of multiple meetings, and should involve the educators learning in a way that the students in the new classes will be learning. For example, if your institution plans on assigning classroom activities to the students, then instructors should be given in-class activities during the training.

  1. Anticipate Resistance and Have a Plan

For many instructors, this is a new model of education that they may not have heard of, and are not familiar with. It is important to remember that change in difficult, and that there will be resistance among certain members of the educational staff. As leaders, you must develop a plan to obtain buy-in from the instructional staff. Part of this resistance may be reduced by a well-planned and executed step 2. The instructors must have the steps of this process explained to them in detail, and the importance of a team dynamic among the staff cannot be reinforced enough during this step. When presenting to the staff that has significant experience in presenting a more traditional educational model, you must remember to remain vigilant in your presentation of this new model. Provide the hesitant instructors with data and information pertaining to the success of this classroom model, and explain in plain language why you are moving to this new model. If you are confident in your presentation, and you believe in the model you are delivering, you will have a much easier time presenting this changing model to the educators you are working with.

  1. Design Interactivity

This is the part of the implementation that may take the most amount of time. After consulting with the education staff and deciding the best methods for your organization to implement a flipped classroom, you must decide how to present the material. This process occurs in stages:

  1. Implement pre-class materials

Instructors should design a coherent outline for the students to review and learn prior to attending class. This class should include an introduction to the topic, a lesson map, the value of the lesson and directions, the expected outcomes of the lesson and learning objectives, new instructional material, and incentive activity that prepare the students for the in-class activity.

  1. Review student work prior to class

The pre-class incentive activity should be reviewed by the instructor that is to present the new material. This component of the class should focus on the elements of the class that the students may struggle with the most e.g. cardiology or pharmacology

  1. Establish your role before you head into the classroom

The instructor should take the time to think about transitioning from their role as a lecturer and discussion leader to letting the students take accountability for their learning as the instructor acts more of a guide and coach than a lecturer. As the instructor leads discussion groups, the instructor may walk around the classroom and observe discussions while offering input, or ask question of students to confirm their understanding of the material.

4.Gather materials for the class

Plan ahead for any technology or materials that you may need for the class. It is best practice to use a checklist to ensure that all the materials that are needed are available. Be sure to have a back-up plan if the technology fails, so that you may continue the lesson in the absence of that tech.

5: Start the class, and implement the main in-class activity

At the beginning of the class, clarify any questions that the students have about the material they read or learned before the beginning of the class. Address information and materials students had the most trouble with before the beginning of the class. Then begin the main class activity by providing students with clear directions and allow access to the materials for the students to complete the in-class activity.

6: Implement post-class activity, evaluate, and assess the plan

At the conclusion of class, direct the students to the next activity and offer directions for the continuation of learning, offer extended learning activities, and survey student motivation, confidence, and emotion. If the students are not engaged, the instructor must determine the causal factor of the disengagement and remedy it. The instructor must evaluate whether the lesson was effective in achieving the learning objectives, and establish efficiency in delivering the learning objectives, and achieving student satisfaction.

  1. Reinvent your class time

Flipping the classroom is an initiative that changes the traditional model of education delivery. It is important to remember that this dynamic is not limited to watching videos in class or having group discussions with the students. This model is a wholesale change in education delivery. Educators must learn how to use the classroom as a venue to have open discussions about the material that is being presented and use the allotted class time to better serve the students.

 

 

 

Portions of this post were adapted from http://blog.blackboard.com/5-steps-get-started-with-flipped-classroom/ and https://www.nyu.edu/faculty/teaching-and-learning-resources/strategies-for-teaching-with-tech/flipped-classes/implementing-a-flipped-class.html