Classroom Culture: Too Focused on "The Correct Answer."

American Classroom Culture

Today we had an emergency drill and a half day, so each class was only 25 minutes long (compared to the 85 that we are used to on a block schedule). So instead of doing mathematics directly, I decided to play a game: You start out with 21 beans. Each player can take 1, 2 or 3 beans. The person who goes last, wins. It is a very simple game. I wanted the class to know that there is more to this game than just beans, so I told the students that "There is a winning strategy." and "If anyone can beat me, then I will give them a piece of candy."

As students played this game and challenged me, they were looking for the "correct strategy." Only one or two students per class figured it out, mostly by watching me and analyzing my "correct strategy." Now that I reflect on this experience, I shouldn't have said "There is a winning strategy" I should have simply said "If you can beat me, then I will give you a piece of candy." By implying that there is only one correct strategy made students focus on what I was doing instead of exploring other ways to play this game.

In addition to this, my gut instinct as a teacher is to tell everyone the "correct answer" at the end of the class period. I resisted this urge and most students left class without understanding how to win the game every time.

Japanese Classroom Culture

Several months ago I watched two classes solve a simple question. The first class was an 8th grade class and the second was a 7th grade class. The question was if you cut a cube diagonally, what is the shape of the cross section:

image from: The Electronic Journal of Mathematics and Technology, Volume 2, Number 1, issn 1933-2823. 

Retrieved from: http://lib.znate.ru/docs/index-134315.html on Sept 24, 2014

In order to solve this problem, you need to use of the Pythagorean Theorem. The 8th grade students had learned about the Pythagorean Theorem, therefore many of them figured it out. However there were groups who did not figure it out and the teacher did not give the answer at the end of the class period.

The 7th grade students haven't studied about Pythagorean Theorem. Very few students in this class solved the problems, but the teacher did not give any hints or give the answer at the end of the period. But the students still worked until the end trying to solve it.

"Correct Answer" or Process

From watching these Japanese lessons, I realized that I am too "correct answer" focused. I knew going into our bean game that I wasn't going to tell the entire class the strategy. The reason is, if students know that they will get spoon fed the answer at the end, then they loose the incentive to solve it next time. It is the process that we are more concerned about anyway, right?

The Power of Synchronous Flipped Classrooms

Asynchronous
In education social media, it seems that teachers favor asynchronous learning over synchronous learning. citing reasons like:

• Students can go at their own pace.
• When students get stuck, they can slow down and understand that concept before they move on.
• Not all students learn at the same rate.

And all of these points are true, but my experience is that each of those points are heavily outweighed by challenges of asynchronous learning:

• Since students can go at their own pace, they put off their math homework because it isn't necessarily due tomorrow.
• When students get stuck, they lose the pace of the class and then they can't catch back up with the class.
• It is true that not all students learn at the same rate, but everyone is supposed to finish the curriculum by the end of the year. You will be constantly pushing the slower students.

Last year I tried to teach an asynchronous flipped Geometry class. The students were allowed to work at "their own pace" to watch videos and complete textbook problems. I knew that I needed more deadlines than just the end of the year, so every student was required to take the test on the same day. What I found is that the majority of my students didn't finish all the notes and practice before the end of the unit.

What I did find from the data is that there was a stronger correlation with students doing well on assessments and students doing the textbook problems and than students who watched the videos and took notes. So I decided to restructure my class so we focused on completing this practice during class and everyone would work at the same pace.


Synchronous Flipped Learning
What I found was the stronger students were more willing to help weaker students because they were doing the same problem at the same time. When I taught asynchronously, everyone was at a different place so they all wanted my help. I ran around like crazy answering questions and checking off work. The discussions between students are much richer and deeper because they aren't trying to finish their work, they are trying to understand concepts and do problems.

So the entire class follows a pacing calendar. The students are expected to come to class having taken the notes. We also take an open note daily quiz. If students come to class without notes, they don't do well on the daily quiz, but I still allow them to participate in the practice with us. Most synchronous flipped teachers don't allow students who don't have the notes to participate in the practice. They make them watch the video during the practice. I personally have chosen not to do this for two reasons. First I believe that the in-class practice is so much more powerful than doing problems out of a text book, especially for the weaker students who don't come to class prepared. Secondly, these students were in an asynchronous flipped mastery class the previous year, I am afraid that these students will simply get behind and never catch back up. Then I am back to the same problems I had last year, except I would have minimal time to work with these students individually because I am working with the rest of the class. Maybe the social motivation that other teachers state is more powerful in the younger grades. I just didn't think it would be enough of a motivation with my high school students.

I understand that this is not the ideal. In fact, the students who come to class having taken notes generally stated that they have "mastered" or are "getting the hang" of a new idea by the end of the class period. Five of the 13 students who come to class half the time or more without notes stated that they were not getting the hang of the new idea by the end of the class. But this is 5 out of my 85 students, and these are students who would probably struggle anyway.

Another reason that I prefer the synchronous flipped classroom is that parents and students seem to understand it better. Meaning that I have to do far less explaining about what the model is and how it is used.

My Situation
I understand that every teaching situation is different. Maybe my bias is a result of trying to use Flipped Mastery from my first year of flipping. Maybe if a did a traditional flip first and then moved to Flipped Mastery then I would have had the opposite experience. But from talking to other flipped teachers and students at my school, I don't think so. I still think there is more power  the synchronous flipped classroom than in the asynchronous flipped classroom.


Comments?
Are you a flipped class teacher who has had the opposite experience? Do you disagree with my assessment? Please comment below.