My Flipped Classroom Learning Experience, Amalia Ducu, Romania

Our current education system is rather rigid and most lessons follow the same pattern: teachers pass on their knowledge to the students while they have to follow, write down and later reproduce said knowledge.

Strict curricula structure must be followed, student’s knowledge is validated by tests and concluded by performance and grades.

When the teachers introduced us to the flipped classroom method of teaching-learning, within Erasmus+ CiELO project activities, we enthusiastically embraced it firstly because it sounded fun to be able to choose the topic of our interest and secondly because we were able to work in groups, with our friends.

After having chosen our preferred topic and reading the biography suggested by the teachers, we continued our research and looked for extended resources. I found the activity quite pleasing mostly because I was able to work together with my peers and the learning process went on like a breeze, not having felt like an effort was put.

We had practiced our presentation multiple times, enhancing thus our communication and presentation skills. Although we were nervous when we had to give the presentation, we felt a great feeling of accomplishment when our colleagues complimented our work and we received excellent feedback. As a follow-up to our presentation, the Q&A session was also a lot of fun.

I think that integrating new and innovative teaching techniques brings satisfaction and better results not only to the students, but also to the teachers who are happy to see their students involved in the teaching-learning process. To the students, it is also a great way of stepping outside of their comfort zone, as they are usually observers rather than participants in the teaching-learning process.