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A growing number of educators are working to turn learning on its head by replacing traditional classroom lectures with video tutorials, an approach popularly called the 鈥渇lipped classroom.鈥� Interest in that teaching method was in full view this summer at the International Society for Technology in Education annual conference in San Diego, where almost every session on the topic was filled to capacity.

The movement was inspired partly by the work of Salman Khan, who created a library of free online tutoring videos spanning a variety of academic subjects, known as the Khan Academy, which many view as a touchstone of the flipped-classroom technique. But, much like the Khan Academy itself, the approach is attracting increasing scrutiny鈥攁nd criticism鈥攁mong educators and researchers.

The term 鈥渇lipping鈥� comes from the idea of swapping homework for class work. Students typically are assigned the video-watching for homework, freeing up class time that used to be spent listening to lectures for hands-on activities and application of knowledge, which used to serve as homework.

However, as most educators who have begun to use the technique are quick to say, there are a multitude of ways to 鈥渇lip鈥� a classroom. Some teachers assign a video for homework, while others allow students to watch those videos in class. Still others make videos for the lesson, but do not require students to watch them at all, giving students a variety of resources and allowing them to choose what they utilize to learn the required information.

But just as the Khan Academy has recently come under fire from some in the education blogosphere for what critics say is flawed pedagogy, the flipped-classroom technique has also garnered criticism from some who believe that flipping is simply a high-tech version of an antiquated instructional method: the lecture.

鈥淢y concern is that if you鈥檙e still relying on lecture as your primary mode of getting content across, 鈥� you haven鈥檛 done anything to shift the type of learning that鈥檚 occurring,鈥� said Andrew Miller, an educational consultant who works with the Alexandria, Va.-based professional-development group ASCD and the Novato, Calif.-based Buck Institute of Education, which works to promote project-based learning in classrooms.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 not how all of us learn,鈥� he said. 鈥淛ust because you flipped your classroom doesn鈥檛 mean your students will watch the videos. How are you engaging your kids?鈥�

Ramsey Musallam, a chemistry teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, a private Catholic high school in San Francisco, shares Mr. Miller鈥檚 concerns.

鈥淓veryone initially thought that [flipping] was an innovative way [to teach] because we鈥檙e so rooted in this idea that students don鈥檛 like homework,鈥� he said. 鈥淗owever, when you step back a little bit, what you鈥檙e looking at is simply a time-shifting tool that is grounded in the same didactic, lecture-based philosophy. It鈥檚 really a better version of a bad thing.鈥�

Mr. Musallam, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco鈥檚 college of education, began flipping his classroom in 2006, but after noticing little difference in student learning despite the extra in-class time for labs and hands-on activities, he shifted his perspective.

He still uses flipping as an instructional technique, but instead of giving students the video initially, they first go through an exploratory, guided inquiry-based period. Next, the students receive basic instructions and materials to complete lab work and observe the phenomena they are studying.

Only then, 鈥渨hen I feel that they can鈥檛 form any more ideas on their own,鈥� does Mr. Musallam make videos to address misconceptions and provide instruction, he said.

Delaying the direct instruction as much as possible increases students鈥� curiosity, he said.

Using the flipping technique is not necessarily negative, Mr. Musallam said, but teachers should be realistic about what it really is.

鈥淚 say keep the flip alive, but lower the volume and think about it like we think about anything,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a thing you do in the context of an overarching pedagogy,鈥� not the pedagogy itself, he said.

Sharing Questions

Jonathan Bergmann, the lead technology facilitator for the 600-student K-8 Kenilworth school district in Illinois, is considered one of the pioneers of the flipped movement. He and his former fellow teacher Aaron Sams began using the flipping technique in 2006 at the 950-student Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park, Colo., to teach chemistry.

The pair created videos of their lectures and posted them online for their chemistry and Advanced Placement chemistry classes during the 2007-08 school year. They required the students to take notes on the videos and come to class with one thoughtful question to share.

The teachers found that the technique allowed them to spend more time with students one-on-one and to provide just-in-time intervention when students needed it. They also noticed an uptick in test scores in the students using the flipped-class technique.

Soon they began visiting other schools that were curious about the method and hosting conferences on flipping. They recently co-wrote a book called Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, published in July of 2012 by the International Society for Technology in Education and the ASCD.

鈥淵ou need to figure out the answer to the question: What鈥檚 the best use of your face-to-face instruction time?鈥� Mr. Bergmann said.

After the first year, he and Mr. Sams made adjustments to the flipped classroom, moving from what they call the 鈥渢raditional鈥� flip to the 鈥渕astery based鈥� flipped classroom.

In the mastery-based model, students are not required to watch videos at home on a specific day. Instead, they are given an outline for each unit that includes all the resources they might need for each objective, including videos, worksheets, and textbook excerpts. They can then work through the material at their own pace, even taking tests and quizzes and performing labs when they are ready rather than as a whole class.

Using technology to create test-question banks that could be randomized, so that no two students receive the same test and may receive completely different questions altogether, made the mastery flipped model possible, said Mr. Bergmann.

鈥楽elf-Paced Became No Pace鈥�

Deb Wolf, a high school instructional coach for the 24,000-student Sioux Falls district in South Dakota, also uses the mastery technique. Instead of letting students have complete control over their pace, though, she sets deadlines to keep everyone on track.

鈥淔or students who had not been challenged in the classroom, this was an opportunity for them to just fly,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or others, it was an opportunity to take the time that they needed to move slower. And for some, self-paced became no pace,鈥� and teachers had to step in and create deadlines.

Ms. Wolf began flipping her chemistry class at Roosevelt High School in the spring of 2008 after hearing about the technique from Mr. Bergmann and Mr. Sams. During the 2008-09 school year, all the chemistry teachers in her school flipped their classrooms, and the next year, the district applied for a federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, which Ms. Wolf facilitated, that provided professional development for the district鈥檚 35 math and science teachers around technology in the classroom.

鈥淢ost of them took away from that grant the idea that they could use technology to help provide students opportunities to master content in a variety of ways so that time became the variable, 鈥� not learning,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have 35 teachers that all suddenly flipped their classrooms, but the take-away was that by harnessing technology, they provided students the opportunity to master what they didn鈥檛 master the first time.鈥�

Still, engaging reluctant learners continues to be a challenge, said Ms. Wolf.

"[Our teachers] realized that we were dragging [such learners] along. They may have been in class, but they weren鈥檛 engaged. I know that we weren鈥檛 meeting all of their needs in the traditional classroom, and I鈥檓 not sure that we were meeting their needs in a flipped classroom either,鈥� she said.

Like Mr. Musallam, Ms. Wolf emphasized that flipping is one approach in a wider framework of instructional methods to help reach students.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just hand the flipped classroom off to an ineffective teacher and say you鈥檙e going to transform the classroom,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to make a bad teacher a good teacher.鈥�

Students and teachers at the Havana Community Unit School District鈥檚 1,100-student high school in rural central Illinois will try their hands at the flipped technique when the entire school flips this fall.

In a district where 65 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Superintendent Patrick Twomey hopes that flipping the school will help address the inequalities that hamper the high school鈥檚 population of students deemed at risk academically.

"[In the current model], one student goes home to educated parents who can help him with his homework, while another student goes home and gets no help,鈥� Mr. Twomey said. 鈥淚n the flipped model, both of those kids come back to the classroom after receiving the content, and now all of the help with the homework is given by the expert in the field.鈥�