Implementing a flipped classroom approach in postgraduate education: An unexpected journey into pedagogical redesign

Abstract

This paper describes the implementation of a flipped approach by two lecturers teaching different postgraduate education courses at an Australian university. Case studies, written as chronological stories, were developed with data collected from email correspondence between the two lecturers as critical friends, as well as from student feedback in the form of face-to-face discussions, online discussions, emails, mind maps, multimodal discussion boards and end-of-semester university surveys. Over a period of 2 years, both lecturers moved from an initial focus on technology and organisation to a focus on pedagogy, while coming to see themselves as (re-)designers of learning. Technologically, the need for time to select and learn to work with appropriate software emerged as a key theme. Organisationally, the need for time to plan and to identify lecturer expectations of students emerged as key themes. Pedagogically, a shift occurred towards a listening pedagogy on the part of the lecturers, and towards more active and engaged learning on the part of the students. It was found necessary to ensure a close fit between what to present in flipped mode, what to do in class time, and how to assess students formatively and summatively.