Classroom micro-experiments, part 4: the flipped classroom, one kahoot at a time

Key takeaways

• A classroom micro-experiment is one small action, run for a short, fixed window, with one signal you decide to watch before you start. Here, the action is a short kahoot students complete before class.
• The flipped classroom starts with a simple idea: move some of the review that students can do independently outside class, so more class time is available for discussion, explanation, and deeper work.
• You do not have to flip your whole classroom to test the idea. Assign a short pre-class kahoot for a few weeks, watch what happens to the time you normally spend reviewing the basics, and decide whether the change is worth keeping.

A classroom micro-experiment is a small, deliberate change, run for a short, fixed window, with one clear outcome you decide to watch before you start. Instead of committing to an entirely new routine, wedging it into an already full week, and quietly dropping it a few weeks later, you run a short test, look honestly at the results, and decide your next move.

At the end, you can keep the change, adjust one thing and test it again, or move on to something else.

In part 1 of this series, we tested a weekly formative check. In part 2, we handed the creation of the review questions to the students, and part 3 looked at increasing peer discussion through team play. This time, the small experiment is about creating more time for deeper discussions or hands-on activities, by having students complete some pre-work before the actual class.

What if students arrived to class having already checked what they know?

A lesson only has so many minutes. If the first ten are spent reviewing material students could have worked through independently beforehand, those are ten minutes you cannot spend discussing an interesting question, working through a difficult concept, or putting an idea into practice.

The flipped classroom is one response to that problem: assign students to complete some of these practice or review activities before class, and reserve more of your shared time for the work that benefits most from having a teacher and classmates in the room.

Flip one lesson, not your whole classroom

Before class, assign a short kahoot covering the reading, video, or topic students are expected to learn. Students complete it at their own pace before a deadline.

Then look at the results before the lesson starts. If nearly everyone understood one idea, you may not need to spend ten minutes reviewing it. If half the class answered a question incorrectly, you know where to slow down and address the knowledge gap. Instead of beginning with the same explanation you planned in advance, you can use the evidence in front of you to decide where your attention is most useful.

That is the micro-experiment: does a five-minute check before class change what you can do with the time you have together? You do not need to redesign a unit to find out.

The experiment: a pre-class kahoot for four weeks

Here is what this micro-experiment looks like in practice:

1. The prediction. “If my students complete a short kahoot before class, I will spend less class time reviewing the basics and more time on the concepts that need the most attention.”
2. The tiny action. Before one lesson each week, assign a kahoot with three to five questions on the assigned reading, video, or upcoming topic. Set a deadline shortly before class and keep it low-stakes: the goal is to find out what students are bringing into the room, not to prove mastery. 
3. The window. Repeat the same routine for four weeks.
4. The results. Pick one metric to watch before you begin: how many minutes of class are spent reviewing material students were expected to encounter beforehand? Estimate it for a typical lesson before the experiment, then track it during the four-week test. The kahoot results can help you identify the knowledge or skill gaps that most need attention; the minutes tell you whether the experiment is changing how you use class time.
5. The decision. At the end of four weeks, choose one of three moves: keep the pre-class kahoot, change one part of the routine and test it again, or drop it and try something else. All three are useful outcomes. Now that you have gathered this data, you can decide your next step  based on what changed in your classroom, rather than guessing whether the approach works for you.

You can collect other clues along the way, too. A quick retrieval check at the end of the four weeks might tell you whether students retained the material. A low-stakes poll can tell you whether they felt better prepared for class. 

Helpful tips on creating pre-class assignments

• Assign it as pre-class work. Any kahoot can be assigned for pre-class work.
• Generate questions quickly. Use existing materials, readings, PDFs, or slides to generate ready-made questions with Kahoot! AI tools.
• Keep the review session short and simple.
• Set the deadline close to class.
• Track completion. Use the player identifier to see which of your students completed the assignment, but keep the stakes low.

A pre-class check makes an existing habit measurable

Assigning something before class is not new. Neither is asking students a few questions about it. What the micro-experiment adds is the opportunity to tailor class time for students’ understanding and needs, based on a pre-class assessment.

The point is not to turn preparation into another test. Keep the kahoot short and low-stakes. Its purpose is to give you a quick check of the knowledge and skills students are bringing into the room, so you can decide where your time together will be most useful.

Maybe the pre-class kahoot means you spend fewer minutes on review, giving you time you don’t normally have for class discussion. Maybe it surfaces a misconception before the lesson starts. Maybe too few students complete it for the routine to be useful. Any of those outcomes tells you something about what to try next.

You do not need to flip every lesson this year. Start with one. Repeat the routine for a few weeks, watch what changes in class, and let the results tell you whether the flipped classroom method deserves a bigger place in your classroom.

Want to try this micro-experiment? Create a short kahoot, assign it before your next lesson, and see what changes when class begins. Start a kahoot.

This is the fourth installment in our Back to School series on classroom micro-experiments. If one of these small changes sticks, you already have the method for the rest of the year: one small change, one signal to watch, and a few weeks to find out.