Simmi Govindani is a Lead Teacher in Math at Yishun Secondary School. Previously, she has taught Math in Mumbai, India, for 10 years. She has been teaching in Singapore for more than 20 years.

Classroom Perspectives

issue 54 sep 2015

Flipping Math Teaching and Learning

Learning happens at home and revision takes place in the classroom – the conventional way of learning has been reversed for students in Yishun Secondary School in their flipped classroom.

The Evolution of Learning

“Our students study and interact with each other in ways that are so different from what we did when we were growing up,” says Mrs Simmi Govindani, a Lead Teacher from Yishun Secondary School. “These changes are, to a great extent, brought about due to technological advances and Web 2.0 tools that are so pervasive nowadays.”

Hence, there is a need for teachers to evolve, and explore new and innovative ways to engage these digital natives.

During the weekly timetabled sessions in school, Simmi led a group of Math teachers to explore innovative teaching pedagogy in the form of flipped classroom. It was then introduced in her Secondary 3 Express Elementary Math (E Math) and Additional Math classes.

One of the aims of the flipped classroom is to cultivate intrinsic motivation and the spirit of independent learning in students. In other words, students are made aware that they can learn through multiple resources – even without the teachers.

Flipping the Classroom

Pre-recorded lessons, online videos and quizzes – these are some of the main ingredients of a flipped classroom.

By harnessing the affordances of such technology through the school’s Learning Management System (LMS), it was possible for Simmi and her colleagues to engage and stretch their students further. The online quizzes also allow them to receive immediate feedback on their learning

“We started small with topics like Inequalities and Cumulative Frequency Curves in E Math via the Math LMS portal,” Simmi shares. Eventually, she started to record herself teaching the topic on Binomial Theorem and uploaded the video on YouTube. Back at home, students watched these videos to understand the content.

“By allowing students to study at their own pace at home, the weaker ones were able to understand the concepts better because they could ‘rewind’ me,” she adds.

The next day, the teacher will facilitate the students learning in class through appropriate questioning, which help to clarify their doubts and consolidate their learning.

Not only does the flipped classroom allow for more time for students to clarify their doubts and more space for student–teacher interaction, it also inculcates the spirit of wanting to learn – even when they are not in the classroom.

However, this change does not happen overnight. For Simmi, she believes that having a positive mind-set in both teaching and learning helps.

By allowing students to study at their own pace at home, the weaker ones were able to understand the concepts better because they could “rewind” me.

– Simmi Naresh, Yishun Secondary School

Independent Learning

“By introducing our students to the vast technological resources available online, we hope to make them self-directed learners, problem solvers and future-ready,” Simmi says. ”They will see that it’s not just about the teachers.”

This helps open their minds to the idea that their teachers are not the only people who can help them study and learn new things.

Back in the classroom, Simmi also noticed that some of her better students were able to help their weaker peers – a form or collaboration and peer tutoring that Simmi believe is a great learning experience for them. It also helps build their teamwork abilities and frees the teacher to give more one-to-one instruction.

If there is one surprise that students have with the flipped classroom, it is definitely discovering that learning is possible anywhere. In fact, some of them even realize that they can learn well on their own!

Math as a Life Skill

Mrs Simmi Govindani has been teaching Math for over 30 years. She is very often asked by her students, “How is Math useful?”

“As a student, one will wonder why there is a need to study certain subjects. Very often, you hear students say “I will not be using this level of Math in my life later on. So why do I need to study it?

Math is not really about only doing the calculations, learning the different topics and applying them in your area of work later on in life. I believe it develops your thinking in terms of problem solving. For example, when you face a real-life dilemma, the skills that you learn when doing Math, such as analysing the problem and evaluating the options, are what stay with you for life.

At this stage, we are telling students that we are exposing them to the different choices available to them so they know where their interests lie to help them make informed decisions for the future.

This is true for every subject. The necessary life skills, whether it be critical inquiry or drawing conclusions based on available data or problem solving, are what students are learning when they go through the school curriculum. For Math, the disciplinarity of the subject is solving problems. It is more of a life skill – think of it that way.”