NTU Leads over 2,000 Educators in Creating Flipped Classroom Revolution

Some 2,200 educators from all across Taiwan were gathered at National Taiwan University on Teacher’s Day on Sept. 28 for the flipped classroom educational seminar presented by Prof. Ping-Cheng Yeh (葉丙成) of the Department of Electrical Engineering. The educators, comprising junior high school, senior high school, and even educators from colleges and universities, spontaneously took the time out of their Saturday to attend the seminar, exemplifying the mass popularity that flip teaching has received in the past year among the nation’s educators.

The flipped classroom is a teaching method that emphasizes learning autonomy by giving the right to education back to the student. In a flipped classroom, students are encouraged to engage in discussions and solve problems as groups. By flipping the teacher’s and the student’s roles, students are also able to develop independent learning, thinking, and expression skills.

Like the flipped classroom, the seminar at NTU also embodies the spirit of autonomous learning as all 2,200 educators in attendance had voluntarily entered the program out of recognition and passion of the system. In addition to NTU, an increasing number of non-profit organizations and universities are also investing resources into flip teaching programs. Such spontaneous programs are able to enhance interest and increase participation since the self-guided model does not require the many burdens common to mandatory trainings. Therefore, many teachers have begun organizing their own study groups so as to be more engaged in the innovative educational practice.

The promotion of flip teaching is a bottom-up, self-motivated movement initiated entirely by the educators. Like the flipped classroom, this model is a revolutionary one is driven by one’s own willingness to learn. National Taiwan University is proud to be a leading member in the promotion of the flipped classroom, and together with the educators as well as the students, we hope to contribute to the change in Taiwan’s educational scene.