How to Learn in a Flipped Class

Three zones of learning

There are three zones of learning, no matter learning the contents of a college class or learning to play a
music instrument:

1. The comfortable zone. The tasks in this zone are so familiar to us that we will not make
mistakes if we pay some attention when doing them.
2. The struggle zone. The tasks in this zone are difficult but doable to us with help from
solutions to similar examples, peers, or instructors.
3. The overwhelm zone. The tasks in this zone are beyond our comprehension, and it seems
that there is not even a place to get started.

We do not want to spend our time in the comfortable zone since no matter how much we practice in it,
we do not make much progress anymore as we can do it very well already. On the other hand, we do not
want to spend our time in the overwhelm zone since no matter how hard we try, we just cannot make
it---we are overwhelmed.

The best strategy of learning is to work and practice in the struggle zone and convert it to the
comfortable zone. With some struggle zones changed to comfortable ones, the previous overwhelm
zones can become struggle zones due to our bettered background and improved understanding. This
way, we can keep learning.

How to read a book

Reading an appropriate book can be the most efficient approaches of learning. Yet, reading a book well
for a college class to get the needed knowledge from it is a tall order, and not everyone likes it or is good
at it. Fortunately, we have good helpers. One of these is a book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van
Doren titled “How to read a book: The classical guide to intelligent reading” (2 nd edition).

According to Adler and Van Doren, there are up to15 steps in reading a book well (analytical reading),
grouped in three stages.

I. The First Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Finding What a Book Is About
1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation and outline these parts as you have
outlined the whole.
4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.
 II. The Second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Interpreting a Book’s Contents
5. Come to terms with the author by interpreting their key words.
6. Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with their most important sentences.
7. Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences
of sentences.
8. Determine which of the problems the author has solved, and which has not; and as for the
latter, decide which the author knew they had failed to solve.

III. The Third Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication
of Knowledge
A. General Maxims of intellectual Etiquette
9. Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of
the book. (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment, until you can say “I
understand.”)
10. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
11. Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal
opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make.

B. Special Criteria of Points of Criticism

12. Show wherein the author is uninformed.
13. Show wherein the author is misinformed.
14. Show wherein the author is illogical.
15. Show wherein the author’s analysis or account is incomplete.

Basically, reading a book is an iterative process. We must read the book multiple times to get the major
contents of the book. Sometimes, the main problem for not understanding the concepts of the book well
is our lack of a good background in the area covered by the book. Some other times, the main problem is
the less-than-ideal presentation of the material in the book by the author. For example, after many
revisions, authors often use important terms that will be defined in later chapters to explain some
concepts in early chapters. This can create a big problem for the first attempt of reading; on the next
reading, however, we have these definitions handled by the first reading and we can concentrate on
understanding the concepts and this can significantly ease our reading and understanding of the
concepts.

Also, our brain can work in the background all the time. Some information we obtained in the first few
times of readings can be fused in our brain and then an elusive concept we had trouble with seems to be
very easy to understand the next time we read it.

Of course, we do not have unlimited time to wrestle with a single book, and we must use our time
wisely---we cannot get stuck with reading the same material again and again without new
understanding. This is where the flipped class comes to help.
How to take advantage of the flipped class

A flipped class can be very effective for learning some classes, including the current one. We use a
variety of materials to help student learn, which include:

1. Class notes addressing all the “What and Why” of the contents. Important example solutions
are missing from these notes.
2. Book chapters addressing the “Why” contents related to the class notes.
3. Videos containing the “How” of the contents---detailed example solution steps that are
missing from the notes.
4. Class notes having all the important example solution steps written in the videos.

One of the most common complains we receive from the students of flipped classes is that they cannot
understand the self-learning materials well before the F2F meeting and have to relearn the material in
the F2F class. We plan to handle this problem from two perspectives.

First, we suggest students to perform the following learning steps to achieve the best understanding in
alignment with the book-reading suggestions while without getting stuck.
1. Read the class notes posted before the video lectures, trying to get as much as possible using
the multiple-step book reading approach. Take notes to all the new terms so that you know
the meaning of them by heart. It is ok if you do not understand some concepts, but you must
understand all the terminologies. We must solve the “What” problems here.
2. Read the corresponding sections in the book to get more depth in coverage if applicable.
Sometimes the notes provide the best coverage. We must solve the “Why” problems here.
3. Watch the lecture video to get detailed explanations that are not presented in the notes and
book. They are mainly about the solutions for various examples. We must solve the “How”
problems here.
4. Read the class notes posted after the video lectures to bring all the ideas together. We must
tie all the about “What, Why, and How” together.
5. Solve problems in the assignments. This is especially useful to test the true understanding of
the material and to shift the “zones”.
6. Come to class in your assigned slot to get your questions answered and practice problem
solving to better understand the topics. This is one of the most efficient approaches to
improve your understanding.

A few suggestions for the study are as follows:

1. Form a team with one or more students to bunce ideas.

2. Get started with the above steps as early as possible.
3. Only try to solve the problems when you think you understand the questions and have some
confidence about the approaches. Record any questions and post them 24 hours before the
F2F session.
Second, we suggest students to use virtual office hours in timely manner.
1. Chop the long modules into small sections and attack each section separately.
2. Do not stay in each of the above learning steps for too long. A quick preview and two careful
attacks are enough. Move on when you have issues/questions; just take notes. In each step,
try to answer your own questions noted in a previous step. Record all the remaining questions
after reviewing the class notes posted after the class.
3. Ask your questions during the virtual hours on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, which will be
recorded and posted online. Post the remaining questions 24 hours before the F2F session of
next week.

How to improve

Learning is always a process to find your best combination of tools/skills. Try something and see if it
works. If you think some of your own approaches can work for other students, please let the instructor
know. If you see some of the suggestions from the instructor are not effective, please let the instructor
know as well. With some iterations, we will be able to make this learning effective. A good set of
learning tools/skills will not only be very useful for this class but will be beneficial for your lifelong
learning as well.