South Onondaga, NY--Traditional teaching has done a 360 degree turn in two math classes at Onondaga Junior-Senior High School.
Students now do their homework in class, and listen to teacher Johnsteven Melfi lecture at home on their computers.
The method is called a flipped classroom.
"What's happened is that the middle and lower level students are getting a better understanding of the concepts," Melfi said. "I have one student who in previous years had been 70s to low 80s, now she's in the 90s."
Each night students listen to a 15 minute lecture. They write a summary of the lesson and do one to three problems to see if they understand the concept.
In class the next day, Melfi goes over the concept again. The students are then divided into groups and given homework to complete.
This was the lecture Melfi taped for the Dec. 16 class.
A fourth period Algebra 2- Trigonometry classroom hummed with activity recently with students talking about inverse variation and formulas as Melfi walked around the room, looking over shoulders, and answering questions.
"If you don't get something in the video, he's here the next day to explain it," Emily Fenner, 17, a junior from South Onondaga said. "It's a lot easier. You can get more in depth with it."
Under the old method if you didn't understand the homework you fell behind,said Tessa Butler, 16, a junior from Onondaga Hill.
"The burden is lifted off our shoulders. We get to do the homework here," said Jacob Becher, 16, a junior from Onondaga Hill.
So far there's only been one complaint about the new method, said Melfi, a 17-year teaching veteran and chair of the math department. Parents complain that they're tired of hearing his voice lecture every night, he said.
Melfi said he heard about the technique about a year ago on a professional development website. Last June, he surveyed students to see who had home internet. Only one student did not. Melfi found an old lap top for her to use, and transfers his videos onto a flash drive that she plugs into the lap top.
The flipped classroom technique is relatively new, about two years old, said Alan Foley, associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Education, who has an expertise in educational technology.
The process is more efficient, allowing the teacher to record one video instead of giving the same lecture over and over several times a day, Foley said. Technology has evolved to allow teachers to record videos without special equipment or training, he said.
"It changes the nature of their classrooms to do more interesting and engaging things in their classroom time, as opposed to just lecturing," he said.
Teachers move from being the "sage on the stage to the guide on the side," Foley said.
"The teacher's whole role is different; they're a facilitator," said Joanna O. Masingila, chair of the Department of Teaching and Leadership, and the coordinator of the S.U.'s mathematics education program.
"Mathematics teachers who use it like the approach because it allows them to have more time working with students to understand the mathematical concepts and procedures," she wrote in an email.