A study of impact of flipped classroom on student educational experience in comparison with didactic lecture in topics classified based on Bloom’s taxonomy

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Flipped classroom (FCR) is a student-centred approach that encourages active participation from students and studies measuring student performance or perception in FCR relative to DL (didactic lecture) have shown mixed results. In this study, we classified topics into two levels of cognition based on Bloom’s taxonomy and compared the impact of FCR and DL on student performance and perception in two different levels of cognition. Materials and Methods: In Department of Physiology, SVIMS, SPMC(W), two DL classes were conducted for two levels (level 1 and level 2) of topics and two FCR sessions were conducted for two levels of topics for 175 MBBS students of 1st year. Student performance and perception were compared between DL and FCR . Results: Student performance was significantly better with FCR method at level 2 (4.69±2.09 and 5.05±2.09, p= 0.05) with no significant difference in scores at level 1(p=0.313). Overall score comparison showed that student performance was significantly better with FCR (p<0.001).Majority of the students felt FCR more suitable for level 1 topics and DL to be more suitable for level 2 topics for ease of understanding. In general, students expressed positive attitude towards FCR in terms of better interaction, student teacher relationship and motivation to learn. Conclusions: Student performance was better with FCR in level 2 topics. Student perception does not necessarily equate to what approach is best for student learning. The results of this study stress the need for faculty to plan a curriculum which includes different teaching learning methods decided based on the level of cognition.