Abstract:

The article discusses the possibility and describes the experience of using the "flipped classroom" method in the system of high school (10-11 grade) and in the linguistic and non-linguistic universities in the Russian Federation.

One of the innovative teaching methods in high school is the “flipped classroom” method, which is regarded as a type of blended learning. Despite its frequent application the method hasn’t been fully covered in scientific literature. The object of analysis is the advantages and disadvantages of this teaching method. Traditionally the “flipped classroom” method is regarded as a teaching strategy which reverses the conventional learning pattern. Thus, academic activities like teacher’s instructions are moved out of the classroom, while traditional homework is delivered into the classroom. However, we shouldn’t mix up this method with that of distant learning, since the teacher and the teacher’s assignments to students play the key role.

We have devised a sample set of assignments which are supposedly most suited for this method depending on the target educational audience in Russia. While selecting them we relied on the latest Federal standards of education in the Russian Federation, which define the framework for school and university curriculum in the Russian Federation. These standards are prompted by the educational aims of Russia, which embody the principles of educational continuity, harmonious development and school-leavers’ employability. We will prove in the article that the given method correlates with these aims and contributes to developing an individual to his or her greatest potential.

We have created several sets of tasks referring to different difficulty levels. They all encompass various kinds of speech activities: listening, writing, reading, speaking; with the higher difficulty level incorporating assignments that focus on active forms of speech. We should stress, that the teacher is given a free hand in the selection of assignments and can resort to various materials available. We would recommend to make use of “rotation” model as a type of blended learning along with the “flipped classroom” method.

Besides in the article we reveal the following advantages of the “flipped classroom” method: economizing academic time; maintaining individual approach; accessibility; flexibility and some others. Speaking about the drawbacks of the “flipped classroom” method we should point out the lack of systemic approach and some others. In conclusion we describe the experiences of using the "flipped classroom" method in the 10th grade of secondary school and in the non-linguistic university. We believe that the method requires more rigid framework and formulation of evaluation indicators in order to provide a more efficient performance of students.

Keywords:

"Flipped classroom" method, blended learning, Federal standards of education in the Russian Federation, speech activity.