Flipped Learning: New in Korea

Quan Quan Nguyen, a Fulbright researcher holding a B.A. in Political Science, presented on the flipped classroom. Usually an open forum has a write-up on what the presentation will entail. Quan's only information alluding to his presentation was the instruction for the prospective audience members, in order to have optimal audience experience, to download the "PollEV" app and register for live polling. Non-iphone users could use the link www.pollev.com/fulbright. No other info was given. 

To kick-off his presentation, Quan did some warm-ups for active audience participation, the goal of the flipped classroom. However, at this point he wasn't "teaching" yet on the flipped classroom, he was just ensuring that all members of the audience were focused, THE ABSOLUTE GOAL in fact of flipping. He started out with a teaching scenario of frustration and a teacher's response. The audience was not to say anything but using the polling app in their smartphones, respond briefly to the scenario. Some responses but not a lot ... until the audience members realized their comments were posted on the screen. Oh! The audience then went crazy with responses! Quan rewarded what he felt were the best ... or most creative ... or whatever responses with choco pies (subjective rewarding but the audience was laughing, and also the audience was primarily foreign so most didn't really care to eat the choco pies, but getting a prize has always been a way to externally motivate people). Stimulating the audience is crucial in have an effective classroom learning experience, and Quan was off and running with his presentation!

After three or four polling questions, he had the audience warmed up to audience interaction with the lecturer/teacher. Basically he was reinventing the traditional classroom dynamics of being very teacher-centered to being teacher-student interactive. But the flipped classroom goes even further. It puts the reins of learning directly into the students hands, and ultimately the flipped classroom is more using the teacher as a resource than as an all-knowing fount of knowledge, a learning style that flips Blooms taxonomy triangle entirely over and puts more emphasis on evaluation and creativity and exploring than it does on just receiving knowledge.

Bloom's taxonomy flipped!

The flipped classroom is a relatively new style of education and learning. Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, two high school chemistry teachers in Colorado pioneered the "flipped classroom" learning model in 2007. In 2012 they published their book on the model Flip Your Classroom. And since its humble beginnings in Colorado, the flipped classroom has become a world-wide movement, most evident in Finland, Japan, Iceland and Taiwan.

The two teachers wanted to reach the athletes in their classrooms. The athletes didn't care about studying; they made lousy grades and were focused on the outcome of the brawn rather the input into their brains. The teachers, therefore, were looking for solutions to motivate those academically challenged students, so they began filming and posting information on YouTube for the students to study outside of the class since the students were interested in the computer but not interested in the classroom. With this method the students were able to study the content and come to class for the teacher to help them apply it via homework and other classroom structured activities. These were the infant days of the flip classroom.

Some of the benefits of the flip classroom are:

• more teacher-student interactions, especially with the weakest students
• more peer-peer interactions
• deeper, more individualized learning
• integrating today's technology to educate today's tech-savvy youth

So how does Korea fit the model of a flipped classroom?

Based on student performances on nation-wide exams, Korea is doing well academically, and within the OECD South Korea ranks fifth in educational outcomes. So what benefit could South Korea expect from using such an educational model? First and foremost, South Korea does extremely well in rote memorization and testing. They have access to a lot of facts and the students are academic vessels to be filled by the teachers. However, if looking at Bloom's taxonomy and the higher skills of evaluation, analysis and creativity, these aspects of performance are little incorporated into the educational learning model. And therefore, students don't have a portfolio of application skills when they move from the classroom to the workplace. Not to mention the fact that not everyone is a vessel that has such high information retention and parroting skills, and so suicide rates from not performing well in rote learning and testing is the outcome. With these many points in mind, there is certainly a place for the flip classroom in South Korea!

Case study in Korea: Bono Middle School in Ansa

Quan has been working very intimately with the Bono Middle School in Ansa with various classes, teaching in one of 20 schools that is currently being used to evaluate the flipped classroom. One of the reasons that Bono was chosen as a school is that it is a low-income school that traditionally hasn't had high expectations from its students. However, the flip model has demonstrated that students who were previous not challenged have done a complete turn-around and started suddenly to excel; in fact, whole classrooms have suddenly been able to flip their testing outcomes!

Also, in order to more accurately assess the flipped classroom in the 20 schools, eight different teachers from widely different subjects (art, math, science and English) are in the school trials. The trial semester is only from August 2014 to Feb 2015, and only some homerooms in the 1st and 3rd year students are included. Because this method is radically different from traditional methods and because students need to study at home and therefore the parents are required to encourage and stimulate the study-at-home time, parents were informed of the semester case study and required to give their written permission for their children to participate in the trials. Almost all parents agreed and gave permission; for those parents who didn't for whatever reason, their children were transferred to other homerooms that followed the traditional learning methods.

So how does the flip classroom work?

The students need access to wi-fi (or a router). They need Internet access, screen casting software ("Explain Everything" app is super popular), YouTube, tablet, iPad, PC, smartphone. These tools just augment the classroom text and other relevant course materials. The curriculum is not compromised, just the mode of learning is altered.

So what actually happens in a flipped classroom?

Many outcomes happen. Quan showed a clip of a teacher on her first day of using the flip being completely angry. She had years and years of experience as a teacher and no longer came in on a weekend to prepare, but because of doing the flipped classroom she had to do a lot of recording and video preparation so she sacrificed her Sunday. However, when the students came to the first class and only 5-6 students of 30-40 students had watched the video she had spent many hours on Sunday preparing, she was incensed. She felt she had wasted her Sunday and now the students were wasting her class time. Her anger was controlled but the middle school students absolutely knew she was angry. She sent all the unprepared students to the back of the room to watch the video clip on their smartphones. This was big shame for students not to meet a teacher's expectations and righteous indignation. She said she didn't have that problem again. They prepared afterwards!

Another scenario was an art teacher who was absolutely clueless how to get the students to do prep outside of class; he had poor classroom management and would give a piece of candy to students for promising to do better the next day ... which didn't happen. So basically he spent his class time giving out candy and never getting any rewards. The students had no proper motivation and the teacher felt extreme frustration at even knowing how to incorporate the flipped classroom.

Yet another scenario was in a math classroom setting. Students were sitting in islands of 4-6 students and doing team work (a big element of flipping a class), or at least they were supposed to do team work. In a one hour session, students had to perform certain math equations and once they had worked them out as a team, they were to raise their hands and get feedback from the teacher. In the flipped classroom, the teacher is always "on", always moving around answering questions, making sure students are on topic, and motivating the slow learners while keeping the fast learners engaged and stimulated. It takes a lot of prep to set up such a learning environment and constant attentiveness to expedite the learning in the classroom. In the math teacher's class, she had five teams and every time they completed a set problem as a team, they were given a circle on the board and then could move on to the next problem. Two teams, one secretly nicknamed "the princesses" by Quan (because as soon as the teacher passed they were looking at themselves in the mirror or primping in some way), never completed any problems even by the end of the class. I'm really wondering how the teacher dealt with these two teams and if she was ever able to get them motivated.

Main take-aways about the flipped classroom:

• Flipping is about making the most of classroom time. More focus on student learning, less on formal teaching.
• Technology doesn't drive pedagogy; good teaching is still essential.
• The first "flip" in flipping is your mindset.
• This is a global movement that has been proven to stimulate, even spike, classroom learning.

Limitations and challenges to flipping:

• Need data collection; flipping currently lacks quantitative information (i.e. exam grades)
• 3rd year students at Bono Middle School are graduating in February, which create conflicts with longitudinal studies
• Questions raised: Does "flipping" work for all teachers? All students? What are the best practices? Standardized training needed?
• Still lack of rigorous research on the efficacy of flipped classrooms

Sinking of the Sewol

Sinking of the Sewol and the Mourning of a Nation:
Untangling the grief, blame and facts of a national disaster

At 9pm on April 15, 2014 the ferry, MV Sewol, departed from Incheon bound for Cheju Island with 475 passengers and 14 crew members. The majority of the passengers, 325, were 16- and 17-year-old students of Danwon high school in Ansan City on their 4-day class trip to Cheju Island before they began their final cram year at the high school in prep for high scholastic scores for entering the more prestigious universities.

What should have been an exciting class trip chaperoned by 14 teachers turned into a national disaster hours shy of their final destination—a loud noise, a sharp jolt and 45° direction change followed by a noticeable list to the ferry raised terror but obedience. Passengers noted the definite list to the ferry but Captain Lee Joon-seok told passengers to stay in their rooms. With Confucian values of obedience to one’s elders highly regarded in Korea, the students remained in their rooms. Apparently with little top-down communication other than the order to remain put, one frightened boy, surname Choi, called the emergency 119 number which put him through to the fire service, which in turn forwarded him to the coast guard. He was the first to make a report of the Sewol in imminent danger of capsizing. His call was rapidly repeated by about 20 more emergency calls from other children. The captain made his emergency call soon after Choi, but crew members with walkie-talkies stationed specifically on the third level did not receive updated directions to take their charges on deck, put on life jackets, or abandon ship despite the rapidly increasing list and taking on of water. Therefore, according to the emergency manual, third-level crew members continued to tell students to stay in their rooms.

At some point the captain issued the order to put on life jackets; however, this order was not heard via public communication systems so crew members and self-appointed teachers who had rooms on the highest level endeavored to make sure their students on the lower levels had the jackets to wear. Teacher Nam Yun-cheol (36), after taking life jackets to all of his students, died while throwing life jackets to students in other classes. His body was found floating near the Sewol the next day. Another teacher Yoo Ni-na (28) went to the fourth level to ensure her students had on their life jackets, and then hearing that more of her students were following orders to stay in their rooms on the third level, went down to help them out. She was later found on the third level without a life jacket. Of the 75 students who escaped the Sewol, 19 were from her homeroom.

And while Captain Lee Joon-seok and his operations crew removed their uniforms, dressed in civilian clothes and were the first ones rescued, four crew members in charge of passenger care died saving their charges. Confucian-thinking or not, as the ship further floundered, Park Jee-young (25), a cafeteria worker, ordered terrified students to ignore orders to stay put and to go to the fourth level and jump ship. She said she would be the last out, but there were so many more to leave, and she stayed to direct others. She was later found still life jacketless and still on the third level.

Among the crew and 475 passengers, only a total of 174 survived the disaster. Out of the 325 students who boarded the ferry, a mere 75 were rescued, and only 3 of the 14 teachers survived. And although the vice-principal of Danwon high school was in the rescued number, two days later he was found hanging from a tree with a suicide note saying it was “so hard to stay alive” while so many of the students under his care had perished. He was the first to emotionally collapse from the stress. His students still are dealing with their trauma of losing so many of their friends and teachers as well as their emotional shock related to the event itself.

In a days-old Hallyu (Korean Wave) blog entry updating readers on the high-school survivors, stress and trauma of what the youth experienced seems to be getting worse. Of the 75 students two still remain in hospital care, 70 are living and taking lessons together at another institution in Ansan while only three have returned to Danwon high school. Though the students seem to be moving forward in academics and hanging with friends to discuss shopping and celebrities, about 20% of the students are receiving treatment for severe anxiety and the majority avoid trigger words that might evoke further post-traumatic stress. They even refrain from wearing their uniforms out of school in efforts to disassociate themselves from questions or sympathies about the tragic event. One father reported that the children do not see themselves as “lucky” survivors but as victims and sinners, who he described as carrying an overbearing sense of guilt. With only 75 survivors and 13 classmates who did not go on the trip—nearly an entire grade wiped from the school—reminders of their “lucky” survivorship are all around, especially as they walk past the ghostly classrooms of vanished teachers and classmates.

Blame, anger and a nation in tears has been the result of the disaster of epic proportion. For three weeks following the ferry sinking programs were interrupted on television and both local and international news stations were dominated by updates on the recovery of bodies and the social and political repercussions throughout the nation. For at least three weeks express buses tuned their in-vehicle programming to the Sewol news updates. For nearly a month numerous petitions demanding careful investigation into the Sewol sinking were drawn up and made widely available in public places like at university gates and on popular street corners. Large candlelight ceremonies were held around the country with a particularly large one held on May 17 with an estimated 50,000 in attendance; the candle-bearing protesters demanded that a clear investigation and transparency on the disaster findings be conducted as well as for the resignation of President Park Guen-Hye. According to one of my students arrested in the candlelight vigil turned protest, 150 individuals were arrested on May 17 and an additional 97 on the 18^th. He and those arrested with him spent two nights in jail before being released without charges. According to him and the others who were arrested, they were never clearly sure why they were detained; his classmates all agreed it was an “irony of the government”. Meanwhile, throughout Korea in public places long-streamered yellow ribbons in huge numbers are tied to trees and gates, many with prayers written upon them, to commemorate the deceased.

Blame is placed on the government and most particularly President Park Guen-Hye as head of the nation for not leading a proper and timely search-and-rescue, for the corrupt regulatory system allowing the Sewol to function despite laws set in place to institute safety, for failure to apprehend Yoo Byung-eun, a thought-to-be fanatic religious leader and owner of the vessel’s operator, the Chonghaejin Company, and who at present has a bounty of KRW500 million (approximately $490,000) on his head but still remains at large. On May 9 parents staged a sit-in protest at the Blue House while holding pictures of their deceased children. They demanded a meeting with the President but only an unknown woman unrelated to the incident got the President’s ear and participated in a photo shoot. The victims’ families say the President lacks a display of sincerity; her ratings as a leader have dropped to 40%, the lowest since her election one year ago.

Blame is on the principal of the high school, who in the past week was fired due to Sewol sinking related reasons. Blame is on Captain Lee Joon-seok and his crew for abandoning ship in violation of the seafarer’s law, which stipulates that crew members must assist their passengers of wrecked ships to safety before seeing to their own safety. The captain and three of his officers are charged with “homicide through willful negligence,” an indictment that comes with the death penalty if found guilty.  

Contributing causes for the sinking of the ferry are numerous. The one perhaps most commonly offered is the excessive and habitual overloading of the ferry to maximize monetary returns for the owner, more specifically that cargo tonnage replaced ballast water which jeopardized the ferry’s stability. This instability is suggested to have been further impacted by the recent renovations and additional construction of fourth and fifth level cabins weighing in at an increased 187 tons to accommodate a further 956 passengers, but displacing the ferry’s center of gravity by 51 centimeters (20 inches) and creating a top-heavy transport. The original captain, Shin, who was on vacation, was aware of the instability of the ship and cautioned his mates not to make a veer of more than 5 degrees. At the time of the sinking, Lee Joon-seok was captain and away from the helm while a novice to the route was navigating the ship. As the novice entered the treacherous Maenggol Waterway, a most dangerous sea route with strong currents, a 15 degree turn instead of a gentle 5 degree turn resulted in a gravity shift and displacement of cargo allegedly stacked perilously and not to guidelines. The consequent sudden displacement of cargo at 8:48am caused the ferry to list violently, take on water and completely overturning by 10:17am on April 16.

The nation once again mourns a large-scale national disaster. The sinking of the Sewol has been most frequently likened to the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul occurring on June 29, 1995, in which 501 people lost their lives. The department store collapse brought the nation to tears and raised questions on integrity, proper management and accountability in the construction of that particular building and how future buildings were to be built. Again the nation mourns but this time with the loss of principally its children, the future of its nation. Repercussions of the disaster are already radiating out, and expected safety standards and changes in politics are already evident.

REFERENCES

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/18/world/asia/korea-ferry-principal-fired/

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2014052255348

http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?code=710100&artid=201405161955187

http://gcaptain.com/first-distress-call-sewol-came-frightened-boy/

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2990375

http://onehallyu.com/index.php?/topic/77824-nb-update-on-the-survivors-of-the-sewol-ferry-accident/

http://revolution-news.com/south-korea-massive-candlelight-vigil-turns-protest-sewol-ferry-disaster/

http://says.com/my/news/sewol-ferry-timeline-of-events-and-all-you-need-to-know

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/s-korea-ferry-survivors/1080418.html

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/05/04/south-korea-ferry-that-sank-was-regularly-overloaded-never-caught-for-13-months/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yongjunmin/how-korean-media-got-the-_b_5169630.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/south-korea-ferry-disaster-surviving-passengers-of-sewol-tragedy-give-evidence-in-court-9558690.html

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140420000221

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140525000430

http://www.nema.go.kr/eng/m4_samp.jsphttp://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/11/in-sewol-ferry-casekoreanvaluesalsoontrial.html

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/south-korea-ferry-disaster-distrust-anger-over-presidents-actions-20140502

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/10777483/Korea-ferry-heroes-of-the-Sewol.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/10818639/South-Korea-ferry-victims-parents-protest-at-presidential-palace.html

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The factual reporting of numbers has been a huge problem throughout the entire coverage of the entire Sewol disaster. The reports on the number of crew members have ranged from 14 to 29. Yet the first and most crushing numerical error reported was immediately after the Sewol was known to be floundering—parents were told through text messaging that all students had been reported rescued and were safe, but that number rapidly dropped to less than 40%. No wonder parents were so grief stricken after hope was offered and then snatched away. The number of passengers reportedly on board has changed continually, fluctuating between 462 and 477, as did the reported vehicles listed as ferry cargo, 150 to finally 180, and tonnage, 657 to finally 1157. Getting the “final numbers” even now, two months after the disaster, is still difficult as the latest numbers are being publicized.

Cheryl Magnant, MA, MA, Assistant Professor at Korea University, writes from South Korea where she has lived off and on since 1991.

[Published in Korean Quarterly, Vol 17, No 04, Summer 2014, p 8.]

South Korea's Suicide Epidemic

"South Korea is a country unlike any other, having gone through extremely rapid economic, social and political changes at a speed never before seen in history. Education, technology and economy in particular have flourished, making South Korea among the wealthiest, most educated and technologically advanced countries in the world. However, cultural and social attitudes and beliefs have not been able to match the speed of modernization, giving birth to a multitude of social problems that have risen as a result. Among these, suicide in particular has increased at alarming rates in recent years, particularly among the younger population, resulting in South Korea now having one of the highest rates in the world. In order to understand this problem, one must begin by developing a strong understanding of the economic, historical, social, and, most importantly, cultural influences behind South Korea's suicide epidemic.



50-year gap contrast picture, showing
the hyperdevelopment in Korea

Upon arriving in Seoul, Joanne Cho, MPH and Fulbright Junior Researcher, began collaborating with professors from various universities throughout Korea in departments ranging from public health and cultural anthropology to clinical social psychology. With their guidance, she started interviewing study participants as well as professions currently conducting research on suicide in South Korea. Through these interviews and her own individual studies into Korea's history, society and culture, Joanne began establishing a groundwork understand of the issues surrounding suicide. She has been focusing in particular on ho cultural and historical influences have shaped modern Korean society, and how these in turn affect social and familial relationships as well as attitudes regarding mental health. In addition, she has been studying the hypercompetitive educational and employment systems which have become a major sources of stress and pressure in Korea today. Joanne hopes to come up with a two level solution to the suicide issue: one that can be implemented at the policy level, and a micro level solution that can be employed by individuals."

South Korea's Suicide Epidemic

Probably the quote that Joanne collected early on from one of her professor informant's was this shocker: "자살이야말로 가장 한국적으로 죽움을 맞이하는 방법이 아닐까..." "Suicide is quite possibly one of the most Korean ways to die..." The statement stunned her and it became a large catalyst in promoting her research as the statement casually suggested solutions to life's problems could be met with a social statement of choice death.

Why are so many Koreans choosing to end their own lives?

Main Research Focus

• Women, generally from a younger cohort
• Historical and socio-cultural context
• Media influence
• Current status of mental healthcare and suicide prevention research
• Recommendations for future research

Why focus on women?

Most of the research on suicide has been on the elderly, the youth, and men, but one aspect of suicide that is sadly overlooked is women committing suicide. Researchers tend to overlook this group because the numbers of women terminating their lives is much lower, but, when comparing the number of women committing suicide with other OECD countries, the number is much, much higher and even growing at a faster rate than men committing suicide. What factors are driving this social epidemic?

It's interesting to note that the highest number of people committing suicide, comparing married and single, is from the single cohort. Joanne has a lot of concern on the relatively unresearched suicide rates of young (especially) unmarried women.

Historical Background 

Korea experienced an extremely rapid rate of economic development and modernization (see picture at top), and this rapid development has been a breeding ground for the fierce competitive environment present today. Additionally, the rate of cultural maturity has not reached the speed of the urbanization. Complicated by these aspects are generational differences creating friction between the traditional, conservative values and the emerging Western, capitalistic trends. Neo-Confucianism has been a big determinant in the past controlling the hierarchical society favoring men and controlling women, putting emphasis on the family, among other social determining values. Korean "Confucian" values expect social harmony by each individual knowing his/her place in society, e.g. everyone has a title based often on patriarchism and age. In (Neo) Confucianism, human relations made up the foundation of the social order. Confucianism is the basis for hierarchy-driven society that Korea has become - "vertical" social structure.

Korea is among the most ethnically homogeneous nations in the world that has the 단일민죽국가, the "single-race society". There is a huge sense of cultural "we" rather than "me" which appears in language, e.g. Korean don't say "my mother" but "our mother". This sense of "we" taps into a "herd mentality", resulting in extreme pressure to follow almost identical paths to success. Thus, hypercompetitiveness results, even among "friends".

A major observance Joanne made about suicide in the media, and it is very frequent in movies, dramas, etc, is that suicide isn't typically depicted as something horrible but rather as something quite sensible, e.g. a bad guy atones for his sins by jumping off a bridge, and everyone forgives him. The media often heroizes people who have committed suicide, and the media's tone regarding the victim before and after suicide change drastically. This gives the impression that suicide is an acceptable way of dealing with difficulties, and gives reason and justification for those contemplating suicide to make the same choices.

Within the past few years, celebrities and even a president of Korea committed suicide and in the wake of these suicides, a rash of suicides were triggered across Korea.

Research, Intervention and Prevention

• The concept of therapy and clinical psychology not well developed or accepted
• Still not seen on par with other clinical illnesses and diseases
• Lack of family support during treatment
• Misconceptions regarding suicide and suicidal behavior

Too much reaction, not enough action: Suicide has been discussed since rates have gone up in early 2000, but little has been done.

Conservative values undermine importance of active prevention and intervention: Notion that active discussion of sensitive topics would only worsen the problem.

Issues with implementation of programs: Minimal monitoring by govt (not sufficiently mandated), not to mention the questionable validity due to the insufficient testing of effectiveness.

Suicide research in Korea

Inadequate support from govt and funding organizations: Studies expected to give quick results in the shortest amount of time (typically 3 years maximum), and the quantity of research is stressed over the quality

Competition between researchers makes collaboration and data sharing very difficult, slowing down the research process.

Limited inter-organizational collaboration.

Future Direction in Research

Research that measures individual effects of social and cultural constructs: Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial; studies that look into more specific reasons behind impulse in necessary.

Reliable research on effect of intervention programs: Programs should be tailored to match cultural and social environment in Korea (also age-cohort specific); there is an urgent need for proper diagnostic criteria in measuring depression and depressive symptoms.

Comparative study on effects of acculturation on suicide (between Korean-Americans and Koreans): Korean-Americans have been considered a high-risk group for suicide, but how does this compare with Koreans in Korea?

Comparative study between suicide trends in Korea and Japan: Both countries share similar cultural and social traits, yet differences in suicide trends are worth studying. E.g. Japan is funding research for their high rate of suicide and the numbers have been dropping. The Korean govt, on the other hand, with its rising rates of suicide only allots 0.5% funding to research/prevent suicide than that of Japan that has a dropping suicide rate.

The Need for Future Direction in Policy

Greater govt involvement in intervention efforts: Rather than just focusing on facilities and funding, personnel and policy need to be firmly implemented.

Stricter media control that is enforced: Similar to how smoking and sexual content are filtered, positive reinforcement and overt acts of suicide should be limited.

More focus on rural areas with greatest disparities: Till now, most of the resources have been centered around Seoul and major cities where rates are lower than out-lying regions.