Teaching & Learning with Technology

Flipped Learning Global Initiative Teams with Micro-Schools

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/04/20

An experiential "micro-school" with two campuses in the Seattle area has joined forces with the Flipped Learning Global Initiative to begin developing an "international network of independent micro-schools" that use the flipped model. Flipped learning is the practice of having a student watch a video outside of school to get the basic concepts down and then coming into class to go deeper with the learning and apply the concepts. The latest iteration, "Flipped Learning 3.0" has refined the practices used by flipped advocates.

LEADPrep, described on its website as "a middle/high micro-school," has students in grades 6 through 12. According to Founder and Executive Director, Maureen O'Shaughnessy, while micro-schools don't have a "precise" description, some proponents have described the concept as "a reinvention of the one-room schoolhouse." Class size is 15 students or less with mixed ages. Schools typically don't meet every day of the week. And they use a mix of instruction -- lecture-based and hands-on and now flipped.

Under the collaboration with FLGI, the two organizations have "envisioned" a global network of micro-schools that use the LEADPrep and flipped models. The schools will be based on standards developed by the Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences, which was formed in 2018 to support best practices for the use of flipped learning.

O'Shaughnessy referred to the combination of micro-schools and flipped as "a magical collaboration" akin to the mix of peanut butter and chocolate. She'll be contributing a monthly column to FLGI's magazine on how to start and manage a micro-school "powered by Flipped Learning 3.0."