Beauty – Audrey's PIDP Blog

What exactly is flipping the classroom?

This is a question that I had when I first encountered the term in my PIDP course. Since I love mixing it up when it comes to how we deliver adult education, I knew I needed to know more. I mean, it’s called FLIPPING the classroom, so I knew it had to be good.

“Flipping the classroom is a ‘pedagogy-first’ approach to teaching. In this approach in-class time is ‘re-purposed’ for inquiry, application, and assessment in order to better meet the needs of individual learners. Students gain control of the learning process through studying course material outside of class, using readings, pre-recorded video lectures… or research assignments. During class time, instructors facilitate the learning process by helping students work through course material individually and in groups.” (University of Washington)

Basically, a flipped classroom is one where the lecture portion of your lesson is done by the student, outside of class time, and the homework portion is what is then done in class.

A flipped classroom gives the student the power to engage in information in their own time and environment, and when they get to class we discuss the core concepts behind the lesson and engage in activities that promote thinking and problem solving. This allows the teacher to take on the role of facilitator and allows for deeper discussion on a subject, something that I think gets lost when you only have time in a lecture to introduce a concept. I love the idea that the student comes with a base understanding and the teacher engages with the learners to start the conversation or activity. I believe that deeper understanding would come out of this, and that the learner would feel more in control of their education.

This all has made me think back to a situation I encountered when presenting a treatment protocol and demonstrating the protocol in one of my classes two years ago. I had a student that really struggled with English comprehension. She asked if instead of following the written protocol, could she record the demonstration on her tablet and use that recording as a tool when she then did the hands on practice portion of the protocol. I allowed her to and it really helped her. Then everyone in her class started doing it. One would record, and then share the video with the class. It made me realize how visual my students are, and made me rethink using written protocols. I had the idea at the time that I would like to create a video series for my students, but found barriers to doing that, so I simply allowed them to keep recording me.

I was not aware of the term flipping the classroom back then, but in hindsight, that is what was happening. My student was telling me what she needed as an adult learner, and I went along with it to help her, not realizing that we were embarking on something much bigger. My student flipped the classroom on me and it was an amazing thing.

I cannot talk about flipping the classroom without mentioning Jon Bergmann, one of the pioneers of this method. He has a great website that is all about simplifying flipped learning. If you are thinking what I thought back when I wanted to create my video series, and that is about funding, you need to watch this video by Classroom Closeup featuring Jon Bergmann. It explains how to create a flipped environment without a big budget. Turns out there are a lot of teachers out there that are simply using what they have (think smart phone) to create video lessons for their students.

We have talked about what flipped learning is and how to easily flip your own classroom, but what then happens activity-wise in class? Well, that is going to depend on what you are teaching. There are many references on the internet to what other educators are doing. Because I am at a vocational college, where students need to be prepared for real life scenarios, I like to use case studies as much as possible. If I have a large group I break them into pairs to work on the case study together. If it is a small group, I have them do it independently. They have to share their findings with the class, and we then discuss those findings as a class. This allows for free thinking, creativity, and application of knowledge. And what teacher doesn’t yearn for that???

What are your thoughts on flipped learning? Are you already using this method? Leave me a comment.

–Audrey

This post was created as part of the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program at Vancouver Community College. You can access their website here. To access the School of Instructor Education Facebook page click here.

2018 has brought a year of change to the beauty industry. Specifically, the introduction and gaining popularity of more invasive treatments. Have you heard of microneedling? Chances are, in the Insta-driven world of beauty, you have. You may not understand what it means, but you have probably heard the term somewhere. Maybe you have even seen images depicting blood soaked, smiling faces.

Even Vogue is talking about these results driven treatments. Click here to access their February 23, 2016 online article by Jolene Edgar, featuring microneedling as the new fountain of youth.

https://www.vogue.com/article/microneedling-skin-care-next-big-thing

For a mainstream publication, this article does actually bring up factual and valid points regarding the history and safety of the procedure. I often find that a lot of articles found in fashion magazines do not, so this was a pleasant surprise. I dislike the image they chose to head the post though. It gives the reader an impression that is not accurate. Yes, much like they state in the article, large gauge needles were traditionally used. But they haven’t been for a couple of decades now, so why use that kind of image. Especially since there are so many more accurate images out there.

Needle Head — This is what a typical microneedling pen device looks like

As someone who has worked in this industry for 20 years, I have seen a lot changes. But nothing like the changes that have occurred over the past couple of years.

So what do you do if you are an Esthetician or Beauty Therapist, and your clients are coming in saying that they want these types of treatments? Of course you don’t want to turn them away, and you definitely don’t want them to get on the internet and order the at home version!

The demand for these types of treatments has created a huge shift in the world of beauty education. If you live in Canada, chances are there is no regulation in your field. That means it can become very confusing to choose a place to further your education, because there is also very little regulation when it comes to the continuing education offered to the industry.

Currently Health Canada is looking at some of the devices we have been using, and they will eventually create guidelines around the use of them. That could go either way for us. If you are an individual who has sunk a huge investment into these devices and your training, and built a business or clientele around it, it could be life changing to suddenly have these things taken from you.

So how do we decide what devices and treatments to go after?

I would say, in my experience, to look at the history of the treatment or device. This industry is cyclical. Everything comes back in one form or another. Ask yourself some honest questions:

Has this been around for many years?

What education should I seek to safely deliver the treatment?

Am I comfortable offering this type of service?

Will my insurance provider cover me for this treatment?

Is this device Health Canada approved?

If you are looking to see if a device or treatment has approval from Health Canada search here:

Medical Devices Active License Listing (MDALL)

https://health-products.canada.ca/mdall-limh/index-eng.jsp

Unfortunately, a lot of brands may mislead you, saying that they do have Health Canada approval, or that they have FDA approval (not actually recognized in Canada). You MUST do your own due diligence.

I do not mean to be doom and gloom over here. What I do recognize though, is that this industry is changing at a rate that is faster than the regulators behind it (if that) can keep up. Please do not fall into the trendy Insta-world of beauty. Some of these “educators” are simply looking to make a quick dollar. Do your research, it will serve you in the end.

As someone who is an educator in this field all of this growth and change have brought some challenges when it comes to delivering up to date information. Many devices cost thousands of dollars. The average professional, Health Canada approved microneedling pen is around $4,000 CAD just for the device, never mind the consumables you will need to continually purchase for it. The average laser platform will run you about $200,000 CAD, often more. So how do we, as an education facility afford to constantly upgrade and add devices? The quick answer is, we often can’t. This means that we need to make highly informed, good choices when it comes to purchasing equipment. I have to be more careful than ever when making these decisions. I look at quality, and what kind of continued manufacturer support is offered.

Remember how I brought up microneedling? I did that on purpose. I used that example because it is everywhere right now, under many a name. But you know what? It also has been around for decades. That’s what I mean about this industry being cyclical. There are the tried and true, and microneedling would be an example of that.