Flipping Out and Digging in: Combining the Flipped Class and Project-Based Learning to Teach Adult Development

Abstract

The urgent need for a worldwide workforce trained in gerontology (Silverstein, N. M., & Fitzgerald, K. G. (2017). Educating a new generation of professionals in agingworldwide. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 38, 1-4) has lead for a call by gerontology educators to employ creative, innovative, novel, and engaging pedagogy in gerontological education (Brown,P. P. (2016). From pedagogy to practice: Adventures in student engagement. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 37, 105-107; Niles-Yokum, K., & Howe, J. L. (2015). Making aging real through reflective teaching and learning strategies. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 36, 107–108; Siegal, B., & Kagan, S. (2012). Teaching psychological and social gerontology to millennial undergraduates. Educational Gerontology, 38, 20–29). This article outlines a novel approach to teaching—combining the flipped classroom with project-based learning—that not only fosters deep learning but also fosters the development of skills applicable to real life. This article describes how to turn traditional lectures into online lectures to “flip” the classroom and also provides a guide for setting up project-based learning, providing suggestions for group formation, project topics, and examples of project contracts and evaluation sheets. When employed together, these powerful teaching tools can provide students with an active, participatory, class experience with the potential to inspire a lifelong interest in adult development and gerontology.