Catch ya on the flipside’ or Will you wipe out? The do’s and don’t’s of the flipped classroom

Christian Bernhardi, PharmD

PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Resident

University of Maryland Medical Center

In 2012 Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sims published the book Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, to become what are considered the pioneers of the flipped classroom model.  The flipped classroom model is becoming popular across educational institutions worldwide, and in its simplest form is “watching a lecture at home and doing homework in class.” While there has been a significant amount of success in student performance and student perception with this model, there still are plenty of crucial obstacles that often get overlooked and can potentially bring failure to this paradigm shift in teaching styles.

What really is the flipped classroom?

 

While a simple definition can be sufficient for some, the flipped classroom according to the Flipped Learning Network:1 “Is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.”

This approach utilizes the valuable time of the instructor during class for more active learning opportunities and higher levels of learning such as applying and analyzing according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. In a traditional non-flipped classroom setting the instructor can still utilize some of those higher levels of learning, but valuable time is taken up to provide a live pedagogical lecture.  

Why should I utilize the flipped classroom approach?

In pharmacy school, one of the most important skills for a pharmacy student to learn is learning how to learn new concepts independently.  The flipped classroom places the background learning responsibility into the hands of the student, and the responsibility of teaching how to apply what has been learned into the hands of the instructor.  Studies have shown that pharmacy student performance in core pharmacy classes has improved with the flipped classroom method.2,3 This concept of moving away from regurgitation styles of learning into application styles of learning may improve professional student’s readiness into the workforce of taking care of patients as well.

As an added bonus to improved performance with the flipped classroom, Prescott and colleagues showed that student perception and satisfaction to be more positive with the flipped classroom model as compared to the traditional didactic lecture approach.4

What are some obstacles to the flipped classroom?

Just because the flipped classroom has shown improvement in performance does not mean that it will always be more effective. In a 3^rd year oncology pharmacotherapy course Bossaer et al. found that student performance was worse with utilizing a flipped classroom approach.5 The major obstacles that caused this negative outcome were the large proportion of the class going from non-flipped to flipped all at once (67%) and the lack of holding students accountable for completing pre-class assignments.  There are plenty of other obstacles that can set back this methodology of learning and assessments that need to be addressed to assure it is appropriate to flip a classroom.

Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sims posted a video in 2014 called The Flipped Class: Overcoming Common Hurdles.6 In this video there are 5 important steps described to help success of the flipped classroom model. These tips include:

·       Making sure there is adequate access to the content

o    As our technological society continues to advance this is not as much of an issue anymore. However, the use of flash drives or other resources not requiring internet can help mitigate this access issue.

·         Teaching the students how to watch a video effectively

o    Even in pharmacy school it should be exercised with students at the beginning of a course how you would like your videos to be utilized to ensure adequate preparation for in-class active learning.

·         Including safeguards to hold students accountable for completing pre-class work

o    Student accountability and buy in for the flipped classroom is a necessity to have success.  By utilizing technologies through google forms or pre-class quizzes/surveys in blackboard, course instructors can track that students are completing what is required of them before coming to class.

·         Understanding that perfection is not expected with videos

o    Bergmann and Sims make an excellent point that an instructor can become bogged down by trying to make a video perfect. In reality, most live lessons are not perfect however.  The idea of a video not being perfect can seem more human and help with workload of posting a video for an instructor thus increasing buy-in from faculty.

·         Starting out small before flipping an entire class all at once.

o    This is a common problem that instructors don’t realize upfront.  For a professor flipping a class for the first time, starting out with just flipping an individual lesson or section can help success of the new model and can be grown from there.

Is it right for me?

The flipped classroom may not be appropriate in every single setting, so it is crucial to assess thoroughly the logistics and resources that will be required to make flipping a classroom a success.

References:

1.    “Definition of Flipped Learning.” Flipped Learning Network Hub. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://flippedlearning.org/definition-of-flipped-learning/.

2.    Koo, Cathy L., Elaine L. Demps, Charlotte Farris, John D. Bowman, Ladan Panahi, and Paul Boyle. “Impact of Flipped Classroom Design on Student Performance and Perceptions in a Pharmacotherapy Course.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 80, no. 2 (March 25, 2016). https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe80233.

3.    Wong, Terri H., Eric J. Ip, Ingrid Lopes, and Vanishree Rajagopalan. “Pharmacy Students’ Performance and Perceptions in a Flipped Teaching Pilot on Cardiac Arrhythmias.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 78, no. 10 (December 15, 2014). https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe7810185.

4.    Prescott, William Allan, Ashley Woodruff, Gina M. Prescott, Nicole Albanese, Christian Bernhardi, and Fred Doloresco. “Introduction and Assessment of a Blended-Learning Model to Teach Patient Assessment in a Doctor of Pharmacy Program.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 80, no. 10 (December 25, 2016). https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8010176.

5.    Bossaer, John B., Peter Panus, David W. Stewart, Nick E Hagemeier, and Joshua George. “Student Performance in a Pharmacotherapy Oncology Module Before and After Flipping the Classroom.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 80, no. 2 (March 25, 2016). https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe80231.

6.    Edutopia. The Flipped Class: Overcoming Common Hurdles. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=bwvXFlLQClU.