Does this new method turn teaching upside down or right side up? An innovative teaching method where explanations of a subject are delivered to students online and the usual homework becomes classwork.

It seems the time-old ‘sage on a stage’ teaching method may not be the best way to ensure the students of today are free-thinkers ready for the modern workforce.

A new and innovative teaching method, where explanations of a subject are delivered to students online, and the usual homework becomes classwork, could be piloted in NSW high schools within two years.

How exactly does it work?

Quite simply actually. Teachers would deliver instructional content via video that students would digest at home. And, when they’re in class, the focus would be on what’s considered the hardest facets to learn such as the practice, skills and essays. They could then tackle these with face-to-face teacher supervision and by working collaboratively with other students.

This model of learning, also known as Flip Learning, is currently being trialled among 70 pre-service teachers at Macquarie University, with hopes that research funding will be found for a pilot scheme.

“Interest in flip learning follows a renaissance in education policy by which critical thinking, collaboration and creativity have become highly sought after,” said Macquarie University’s Dr Kim Wilson.

Addressing visual arts teachers from across NSW at the Art Gallery of NSW in March, Dr Wilson said that it was important for teachers to find time in their classroom every week for students to experiment with ideas and even fail. Teachers should be prepared not to have anything to show or mark for such classroom ‘‘thinking’’ time.

“Young jobseekers need grounding in all subject areas,” continued Dr Wilson, “however it’s just as important that they have the chance to explore analytical reasoning, emotional intelligence, novel and adaptive thinking and have the ability to work in collaboration with their peers.”

This new Flip Learning model definitely supports such grounding and exploration.

Tracey Muir, a senior lecturer in mathematics education at the University of Tasmania, has been researching Flip Learning in three high school mathematics classrooms in Tasmania and Victoria.

She found that students were overwhelmingly positive about the new approach and found benefits to working at their own pace and taking charge of their learning at the same time.

All three high school teachers involved said they would not return to their old methods of working out of textbooks.

To further emphasise the importance of this model of teaching, Dr Wilson cited the Silicon Valley global design firm Ideo, creator of the first computer mouse for Apple, the stand-up toothpaste tube, and an improved Pringle chip.

She said that most modern innovations were not the result of a lone genius working away in isolation but fluid collaborations between innovators. And that such collaboration should start at school.