Amalgamating a large group of diverse students through the synergy of a flipped classroom design and differentiated instruction

How do you activate a large group of students with different backgrounds and interests? Declining staff-to-student ratio’s will only intensify this widespread challenge. This project aims to tackle these challenges through course design strategies that exploit the synergy between a flipped classroom approach and differentiated instruction. To address differences in pre-existing knowledge, students are guided by orienting quizzes through a network of resources; ranging from remedying tools to more challenging content. Valuable contact time is used for clarification, but above all to organise a ‘scaffolding’ of group assignments that encourage students to apply this knowledge to a real-world problem. By offering a range of problems, we capitalise on their diverse interests to promote deep learning. In sum, when resources are limited, innovative course design can facilitate differentiation and deep learning.

As part of the CLI Fellowship, Pieter and Peter's work includes developing around 50 knowledge clips and 5 animation videos, including corresponding sensemaking activities.