Flipped Learning Global Standards Community Announces Co-Chairs, Including Harvard University
CHICAGO – The Flipped Learning Global Initiative (FLGI), a worldwide coalition of educators, researchers, technologists, professional development providers and education leaders, has announced the co-chairs of the Global Standards Community (GSC). The chairpersons include: Dr. Eric Mazur, the Balkanski professor of Physics at Harvard's Graduate School of Education; Dr. Caroline Fell Kurban, director of MEF University's Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in Turkey; Dr. Raul Santiago Campion, professor of Didactics and Pedagogy at University of La Rioja, Spain; Dr. Gwo-Jen Hwang, chair professor, Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; and Jon Bergmann, chairman and chief academic officer, Flipped Learning Global Initiative. Eric Mazur and Jon Bergmann are widely listed among the founders of Flipped Learning, and MEF University is the first fully flipped higher education institution in the world.
The Global Standards Project was started by FLGI's International Faculty to establish a global framework for Flipped Learning training. The project was launched in response to the growing worldwide interest in Flipped Learning, and a pressing need for a common reference point, guidelines, and standards. The most recent global data collected by FLGI suggests that as high as 80 percent of Flipped Learning practitioners and trainers are 3-5 years behind current best practices. International standards are needed to ensure the training educators receive is based on the most current global research and global best practices in Flipped Learning.
"Perhaps the need for a global initiative on standards for Flipped Learning is best underscored by the response we immediately received," says Jon Bergmann. "Within a few days, Flipped Learning practitioners from K12 to higher Ed, from New Zealand, Indonesia, Italy, Australia, Taiwan, Spain, Argentina, Canada, Malaysia, Belgium, Hong Kong, and the United States answered the call to participate."
The initial standards discussion was held among a closed group of International educators who proposed over 164 potential criteria. The group included input from Dr. Richard Schwartzstein, professor of Medicine and Medical Education at Harvard Medical School; Richard Reis, professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Stanford University, and MEF University President Muhammed Şahin.
Out of that discussion came the first standards for Flipped training which were adopted by FLGI for its International Faculty. The Global Standards Community is intended to build on the seminal work of the faculty by inviting participation from the worldwide education community.
"We're seeing at least four areas across the global Flipped Learning community where there is a vacuum that begs for some sort of framework, guidance, or standardization," says Errol St. Clair Smith, director of Global Development at the Flipped Learning Global Initiative. "Flipped Learning practitioners are telling us we need a common terminology, best practices for integrating research and practice, cultural responsive Flipped Learning strategies, and to identify global pitfalls and common mistakes."
Any registered community member will be able to propose, discuss, and debate the criteria. The community will establish delegates to cast votes on the criteria that advance to the final stages of defining the standards.
Educators interested in working closely with the Global Standards Community by becoming delegates can apply at www.flglobal.org/delegates.
About the Flipped Learning Global Initiative
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative (FLGI) was created to support the rapidly expanding adoption of Flipped Learning all over the world. FLGI aims to fill the growing global need for collaboration across borders in three domains: evolving best practices in Flipped Learning, research curation and distribution, and technology selection and implementation. To participate in the Global Standards Community or get a full list of FLGI's Global Standard for Flipped Learning, contact: Errol St.Clair Smith, director of Global Development, at 949/677-7381, 190561@email4pr.com, or go to http://flglobal.org/.