In this illuminating article, Heather Field describes her adoption of a flipped classroom model for teaching tax law during the pandemic. Like many, Field learned lessons from her pandemic teaching that will continue to be instructive now that we are (hopefully) back to an in-person teaching world. Field’s thoughtful article is well worth a read for those (like me!) wanting to do more with flipped classroom teaching.
As Field describes, a flipped classroom involves moving content delivery outside of the classroom (for instance to pre-class videos created by the instructor), thereby creating more space in the class period for active learning in the form of activities and problems. The purported benefits of flipped classrooms include more time for active student learning in class, the ability of students to learn and review content from the videos at their own pace, and the possibility of more differentiation in in-class problem sets. Flipped classrooms certainly were not new to the pandemic, but rather had existed in a variety of educational spaces prior to the turn to remote learning. However, like Field, many professors had not embraced the flipped classroom before the emergency teaching experience that was Spring 2020.
Field’s flipping of classes involved providing students before-class mini-lecturettes, which gave students an overview and explanation of the material. Class time was then spent going through problems, potentially with polls and additional bonus problems added in to the class to better gauge student understanding. Overall, her experience was a positive one. Students appreciated the opportunity to review the content at their own pace and potentially revisit it, students had more time in class to work on problems, Field was better able to direct students to the important parts of the course, weaker students were able to participate more fully in the class, Field could cover more difficult material much more efficiently, and Field had the opportunity to think more carefully though all her explanations of the course material.
One of Field’s most interesting insights is how a flipped classroom allowed her to exchange certain types of classroom rigor for other types. One of her principal concerns with flipping a classroom was that it would reduce rigor. By providing students with explanations of the law, she worried, she would relieve students of the difficult task of having to interpret the law themselves. This was particularly concerning to Field in teaching tax law, because a big part of the job of tax lawyers is to read the primary source tax materials themselves and explain the materials to someone else. To some extent, Field found that her concerns about rigor were not entirely unfounded – when she explained a statute in a pre-class video, students did not have to try to make sense of it themselves first. However, Field unexpectedly found that the use of the videos also created opportunities for new kinds of rigor. With a quicker understanding of the basics of the law, students had time to examine harder problems. They also had time to work on other skills, such as using the law to engage in planning or strategizing.
I found this insight particularly valuable for a couple of reasons. First, it emphasized that, as professors, we should be trying to teach our students a variety of lawyerly skills. How to read and interpret the law as a primary source is a critical skill students should learn, but so are more advanced skills such as how to apply the law in strategic ways. I also appreciated Field’s insight because it illustrated how pre-class videos need not be an all or nothing approach. As a professor, I tend to favor using the same type of format each class. This can be useful (in terms of developing teaching routines), but I think Field is right that professors should first think through what their pedagogical goals are on a given day, and then think about how and whether pre-class videos will help facilitate those goals on that day.
In addition to some of these major lessons, Field also offers a host of smaller tips. As Field describes, flipping a class is a lot of work, and professors should take care to create materials in a way that makes them re-usable in later years. One tip I found particularly useful was that professors should use the same slide deck for the pre-class videos and the in-class portion of the course. However, the in-class portion should also include blank slides, which enable the students to work through additional problems in class. Using the same slides for both purposes can reduce confusion for the students and unnecessary work for the professor. Field also widely counsels that professors also should not hesitate to flip one unit at a time, to see how it works and what, if any, adjustments to make.
In short, Field’s article is a useful and inspirational synopsis of how she made the switch to flipped classrooms during the pandemic. I really appreciate Field sharing her process and journey. I believe that many professors will find the article useful as they continue to grow in their teaching practices.
