The RT-CICLO model (real time – collective intelligence applied to a cooperative learning with a social base) is based on generalist processes identified in main active methodologies. This model has been developed as a general model. Therefore, it could be applicable to any active methodology. The main characteristic of the RT-CICLO method is not only to foster active learning, but also to enable students to acquire active skills. In this chapter, the RT-CICLO model is applied to a flip teaching methodology throughout all its phases (lesson at home and homework in the classroom). The main results are obtained in two steps. The first step confirms that students acquire active skills. The second one explores the impact of knowledge creation by students as a way to get feedback and to use the created knowledge as a learning object. It should be highlighted that students' perceptions are positive using this approach.
TopIntroduction
The Flip Teaching (FT) method, also known as Flipped Classroom, is mainly characterized by the reversal of the training model. In a traditional model, the lesson is taught in the classroom and homework is done at home. However, in the FT method the student takes lesson at home and does homework in the classroom (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Therefore, the place where the learning process takes place is the real change, because the methodology does not really change. But why has a simple change of place in the implementation of learning activities had such an impact?
The answer may be that the real change is connected with the students’ inactivity (or their activity). They usually remain inactive during the teaching of a masterclass. That is, their actions are almost limited to listening, one of the activities with the least impact on learning (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956). Nevertheless, homework involves cognitive activities that positively influence learning (relating knowledge, reflecting, making decisions, creating knowledge, etc.).
Thus, in the traditional model, students remain passive in the classroom, precisely when they are with their peers and teaching staff. However, when students are on their own at home, they perform many more cognitive activities that contribute to their learning. Conversely, in the FT method, the students’ inactivity moves from the classroom to their homes, where they watch the lessons previously recorded in video format. In this way, students, who are more active in the classroom, can carry out this activity cooperatively by matching teachers and students. Consequently, if there is timing, people generate knowledge as long as there is interaction and active participation (Clare Newton & Ruiz Carrillo de Albornoz, 2015).
However, this situation evinces a significant obstacle in terms of FT implementation. Traditionally, it is based on the premise that students attend a class having learnt their lessons at home (Baker, 2000; Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000), and they are actively engaged in the classroom with their acquired knowledge (Strayer, 2012). Therefore, students should also be active during the lesson at home to increase their learning from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. It seems then that applying active methodologies during the lesson at home would be the most appropriate technique.
Students’ active participation implies more efficient learning, since more cognitive actions are involved (Dewey, 1916, 1929). Methodologies for promoting greater students’ involvement throughout their learning process are called 'active methodologies'. In this respect, many research studies clearly indicate that FT method corresponds to an active methodology (Khailova, 2017; Lambach, Kärger, & Goerres, 2016; Smallhorn, 2017).
In addition, active methodologies entail getting students’ reflections from an action: individual and cooperative knowledge created from the existing one (Bringuier, 1977) and feedback from the created knowledge (Chickering & Gamson, 1987), through social interaction (Vygotsky, 1978) and their interaction with the environment (Fitzgerald & Ausbel, 1963).On the basis of these characteristics, the authors of this paper have previously presented a variant of the FT model. The so-called Micro Flip Teaching (MFT) consists of complementing the lesson at home (the teacher's video) with an activity that the student must perform before attending the class (Fidalgo-Blanco, Martinez-Nuñez, Borrás-Gene, & Sanchez-Medina, 2017).