Interesting to listen to Sharon Thomas Parrott from the USA speak at the NAEEA conference   about higher education in the states. It seems that no matter which country you are in, there are issues around higher education.  However, my thinking is that as a lecturer, my key objective should be around my students and ensuring their success through this educational journey.  One comment that Sharon made that resonated with me was "meet the students where they are at in order to take them to where they need to go".  As adult educators, we play an important role in scaffolding their knowledge and supporting them emotionally. However, I have witnessed that where there is a reduction in compassion towards where the students are at, there is reduced student engagement and ultimately higher levels of student attrition and disempowerment.  

I have just returned from the National Association of Enabling Educators in Australia conference held in Sydney on the 25th & 26th November 2015.  It is a wonderful opportunity to share research and quality practice amongst other likeminded colleagues teaching into the 'enabling' space within Australia and New Zealand.  At the conference, I had the opportunity to share my findings about how well the Flipped Model approach worked in my classroom.  

Back in 2014, I introduced the Flipped Model Classroom (FMC) with my class of Preparation Skills students.  This trial ran over two terms in 2014 and then I spent time reflecting, evaluating and writing a paper to share my findings with my colleague, Herna Conradie.  This paper will be entered into a journal for everyone to read; however, the overall findings were that this approach definitely created a dynamic classroom environment with strong peer engagement and there was plenty of positive feedback from both students and lecturers. 

The main aspect that was highlighted as an area that requires improvement was around the general framework.  Through all my research, I couldn't find any guidelines for lecturers to follow to ensure the Flipped Model remains consistent no matter who uses it.  It felt 'wishy washy' and requires a more solid framework to ensure consistency no matter who uses it.  Other considerations include: original concept was designed by high school teachers to be used within a secondary environment; whereas, in the higher education environment, adult learning principles need to be taken into account.   Additionally, the FMC also has an expectation that students will have viewed/read material prior to attending, yet it was found that only 50% of students claimed to have done this prior to entering the classroom.  Therefore, it cannot be assumed that all students have an understanding around the topic/s to be taught in class.

If you'd like to read more about this trial, the paper will be shared on this website as soon as it has been finalised.  If you have trialled this style of teaching, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it went.

It was due to this trial and the subsequent evaluation and review that the Higher Expectation Framework was developed (and is still being developed).  I am keen to get some professional dialogue happening around this space as I believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg and as other colleagues begin to see merit in this approach, this framework could potentially become a well known approach used in adult learning sectors.