The flipped classroom Assessing an innovative teaching model for effective and engaging library instruction

The flipped classroom is a teaching model that inverts the traditional lecture-plushomework formula. By moving the delivery of foundational principles to digital media, such as video lectures or tutorials, class time is freed up for engaging activities that allow students to apply these basics to practical scenarios in the presence of their instructor. The flipped classroom is attributed to high school teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, but many creative teachers have used variations of this method for years. 1 Librarians are also taking part in this trend, as evidenced by another C&RL News article from earlier this year, “Four quick flips: Activities for information literacy classroom.” 2 Information literacy (IL) instruction can especially benefit from a model that makes the best use of class time by inviting students to dive right in and encounter the real-world complications of library research.