Sustained Improvement in Medical Students' Academic Performance in Renal Physiology Through the Application of Flipped Classroom

Background

Teaching renal physiology is problematic in many medical schools since conventional passive learning might not be effective. Active learnings including flipped classroom (FC) have been introduced to medical education including renal physiology topic recently, but no study regarding long-term outcomes has been reported.

Approach

Two classes of second-year medical students were compared. The former class studied with conventional lecture and the latter class studied with FC. Our FC includes asynchronous instructor-made recorded lectures that students can study according to their pace and available time, followed by synchronous case discussions related to the lecture topic. There were post-test quizzes for all recorded lectures along with the given explanation of the answers after finishing each quiz. Short-term topic understanding and long-term knowledge retention assessed with summative examination and end-of-preclerkship comprehensive examination, respectively, were compared. Attitude towards FC was also assessed.

Evaluation

Students in the FC group performed better in both summative examination (70.1 ± 8.9 vs. 62.8 ± 9.9, p < 0.001, a total score of 90) and comprehensive examination (6.5 ± 2.2 vs. 5.9 ± 1.8, p < 0.001, a total score of 11). Most students agreed that FC should be applied despite the increased stress level and that the post-test quizzes were very helpful. Intriguingly, the multivariate analysis showed that male students performed better than female students for both examinations.

Implications

Well-designed FC is a promising and highly effective method in renal physiology teaching. Cautions for the instructor include students' stress and gender differences in academic performance.

Well-designed FC is a promising and highly effective method in renal physiology teaching.