The Flipped Classroom: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract

Introduction The objective of this study was to review and critically appraise the medical education literature pertaining to a flipped-classroom (FC) education model, and to highlight influential papers that inform our current understanding of the role of the FC in medical education. Methods A search of the English-language literature querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychINFO, PubMed, and Scopus identified 296 papers related to the FC using either quantitative, qualitative, or review methods. Two reviewers independently screened each category of publications using previously established exclusion criteria. Eight reviewers then independently scored the remaining 54 publications using either a qualitative, quantitative, or review-paper scoring system. Each scoring system consisted of nine criteria and used parallel metrics that have been previously used in critical appraisals of education research. Results A total of 54 papers (33 quantitative, four qualitative, and 17 review) on FC met a priori criteria for inclusion and were critically appraised and reviewed. The top 10 highest scoring articles (five quantitative studies, two qualitative studies, and three review papers) are summarized in this article. Conclusion This installment of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) Academy Critical Appraisal series highlights 10 papers that describe the current state of literature on the flipped classroom, including an analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of an FC approach, practical implications for emergency medicine educators, and next steps for future research.

Flipped classroom combined with case-based learning is an effective teaching modality in nephrology clerkship

“…These active-learning approaches are gaining more and more popularity in medical education. While the efficacy of FC over LBT seems to rest on subjects and specific settings [ 30 ]. In the present study, we implemented FC with CBL combined in the class activities in nephrology clerkship students and compared the students’ perspectives and performance with those experienced LBT teaching modality, which was a novel attempt and provided insights for teaching of other modules in nephrology.…”

Learning without Borders: Asynchronous and Distance Learning in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond

“…In one study of an emergency medicine clerkship for fourth-year medical students, over a third did not use asynchronous resources at all during the clerkship, though nearly 70% stated they preferred that modality ( 14 ). Furthermore, faculty time requirements may be prohibitive; a critical appraisal of recent flipped classroom literature suggested that creating high-quality asynchronous content can be more time and labor intensive for faculty than creating traditional didactics ( 15 ).…”

“…Even in situations in which some in-person teaching is necessary (e.g., teaching new learners a procedure in a simulation laboratory), asynchronous learning may help streamline or truncate in-person didactics. For instance, flipped classroom and blended learning approaches have good success when used for procedural teaching ( 15 ) and could minimize the time learners need to spend in a simulation center.…”

Flipped Classroom in Programming Course: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Many works studied the implementation of the FC method in a specific discipline such as economics [13], language study [14], and chemistry [15]. Meanwhile, some studies only focus on reviewing the FC implementation papers, such as [16] [17] [18] [19]. Most of these literature review papers studied the FC implementation's articles in various disciplines.…”

“…Most of these literature review papers studied the FC implementation's articles in various disciplines. On the contrary, [18] only reviewed papers that discussed the implementation of FC in medical education. Unlike the other papers that analyzed the benefits and challenges of the FC implementation, [17] examined only the effect of FC on learning outcomes and student satisfaction.…”