Dive Brief:
- Educators who want to develop a successful blended learning program, should consider a “discovery-driven planning process,” according to eSchoolNews. That starts with bringing a diverse group of people together from different parts of a school, and going through all the assumptions educators might make — such as whether the Wi-Fi will be reliable.
- Next, educators should put, in order, which assumptions are needed for their plan to work — and then re-rank them based on much they think they are true. The ones a teacher believes is likely to happen, should go to the bottom.
- Teachers should then test which assumptions are most crucial to the plan, but those that they’re least confident will succeed. Finally, they should re-check these elements and if they don’t work, investigate other options.
Dive Insight:
In flipped or blended learning classrooms, students are often given time to handle material on their own. They’re not necessarily learning by themselves, but they are discovering information away from teacher instruction. And some teachers, particularly those in flipped learning environments, believe discovery plays a crucial role in education.
“A growing subculture of flipped learning teachers” are setting aside 10% to 20% of class time to “…letting kids discover their passions,” according to authors in a paper for the International Society for Technology in Education. “Students are still held accountable for what they learn, but the content they are learning during this time is up to them.”
When students are allowed to feel that they are the architects of their own learning, discovering connections on their own, the result can also be students who have “…a sense of ownership,” wrote researchers in the 2017 paper, "Enhancing the Design and Analysis of Flipped Learning Strategies."
While educators must ensure that the curriculum covers the required standards, true education happens when students and teachers are working in partnership. In giving students some freedom to guide their own learning, teachers might also make their own discoveries.