Description:  Teaching is a reflective practice and requires attention to feedback from students as well as other professionals in the field. I make it my practice to request formative assessment of my teaching throughout the semester. In addition to the summative assessments by my students (chapter tests, final exam, and teacher evaluations such as IDEAs), I request feedback from my students regarding my pedagogy as well as the design of the course (exit slips, class discussion). This is also a deliberate modeling of the reflection these pre-service teachers must learn to do for their own practice as professional educators. Due to the nature of MTH 121 and 122, Mathematics For Early and Middle Grade Teachers I and II, and the variety of levels of understanding that exist among the learners registered for these courses, feedback received from the students included a need to hear class lectures multiple times for concept mastery. A careful analysis of both formative and summative assessments upon completion of initial instruction of both of these courses suggested areas of improvement in course design and implementation. Consequently, I chose to flip the classroom, creating video tutorials and worked out examples utilizing multimedia, which are viewed by the students prior to class.  This frees up class time for more hands-on activities. In addition to working out problems as a group during class time, students also have the opportunity to work individually and in small groups to complete textbook exercises.  Above is one example of a brief tutorial created for this course.

Reflection: The two mathematics courses referenced above became my courses due to faculty reduction and reorganization.  With mathematics instruction in my background, I was well aware of the variety of learner characteristics often evidenced in basic courses such as these. Although these are not methods courses, I saw an opportunity for dual modeling of behavior and cognitive skills through the use of technology.  Creating video tutorials allows for the communication of cognitive behavior as the instructor must "think aloud" in the worked out examples.  Asking students to view these videos provides a model of effective technology integration with the capacity for individualized instruction, meeting the needs of the students regardless of their mathematical ability level.  The idea of the flipped classroom was introduced to me just a couple of years ago during an investigation of trends in education. I had no experience with creating any type of multimedia although my own instruction had been video taped once as evidence of literacy instruction and engagement of my learners.