How FlipFlash works
Pupils turn what they need to learn into tiles of their own, lay them out on a 5 × 5 board, and learn the board through a game with one rule: get one wrong, go back to the beginning.
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Flipflash needs no screens or devices. It works in any subject, with any age group, and fits into the lessons you already teach.
Making a tile
Each tile has two sides. The front is a drawing of the idea, made by the pupil. The back is the KIC (key information carrier): a word, short phrase or formula that carries the key fact.
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For example:
- A castle on the front, and "le château" on the back.
- A circle with its area shaded, and "Area = πr²".
- A ghost wrapped in chains, and "Marley: chains forged by his greed in life".
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Pupils make the tiles themselves rather than using pre-made flashcards. Making them, arranging them and testing themselves is what fixes the learning. You decide who chooses the content: you can set all 25, the class can agree them together, or each pupil can choose their own.
The board
The board has 25 slots, numbered in the order pupils work through them. They start at the bottom left and go along the first row from left to right, then back along the second row from right to left. They change direction on every row, finishing at slot 25 in the top right. This route is called the Snake.
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Changing direction matters. When every row is read the same way, pupils can slip into reciting a sequence. Changing direction breaks that habit, so each tile has to be recalled on its own.
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You don't have to fill the board. Use only the slots the content needs, keeping the Snake order from the bottom left.
The Three Phases
Phase 1:
The Build
Pupils make their tiles, place them on the board, and record each one in their planning book, with the drawings on one side of the page and the KICs on the other. They can build all 25 at once, or row by row when a full board would be overwhelming.
Why it works
Flipflash rests on two well-established findings from memory research.
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Dual coding. Learning is stronger when information is held both as a picture and in words. The drawing and the KIC give pupils two routes back to the same idea (Paivio, 1971).
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Retrieval practice. Pulling information out of memory strengthens it far more than rereading notes. Every turn of a tile is a retrieval (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006).
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As facts become automatic, pupils need less working memory to hold them, which leaves more for thinking with them, such as answering an exam question or planning an essay.
Phase 2:
The Loop
Pupils learn the board one row at a time. Each row goes through four steps:
Front to back: look at each drawing and say its KIC.
Back to front: turn the tiles over and recall each drawing from its KIC.
Empty slots: take the tiles off and say what belongs in each slot.
Back in place: mix up the tiles and put each one back in its slot.
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Once a row is secure, pupils learn the next row the same way, then work through both rows together. Each new row is added to the ones before, so the first facts are practised again and again.
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The go-back rule: a wrong answer means go back, and so does "not sure". The pupil checks the tile, then goes back to the first tile of the step they're on. Going back isn't a punishment. The repetition is what makes the learning stick.
Phase 3: The Ultimate Challenge
All the tiles come off. Pupils look at the empty board and say what belongs in every slot. A pupil who can do this has learned the board.
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It doesn't matter if a class doesn't reach all 25 in one session. What matters is that pupils are confident in what they have learned.
