The Flipped Classroom: Viewpoints in Asian Universities

The flipped classroom has long existed in various forms, but was popularized and solidified as a model by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (1, 2). They first published a book on it in 2012, titled "Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day"(1, 2). This model aims to reform age-old teaching methods that are inefficient and often fail to engage students in the classroom (3). The flipped classroom is a concept whereby schoolwork is done at home and homework is done at school (1). Also known as the 'inverted classroom', the flipped classroom has infiltrated many classrooms in the West. Media like the The New York Times (4) and The Washington Post (5) have even reported on it. Books deliberating it have surfaced and teachers themselves have tried, tested and advocated it (2-10). Following the widespread success of the flipped classroom as reported in the West, this paper aims to discover the response of Asian users. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to report on the Asian perspective of the flipped classroom model.