Time to Flip? Feedback from UNIMAS Medical Students Towards Implementation of Flipped Pathology Classroom

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the perception of year two preclinical medical students towards flipped classroom over conventional teaching method through qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study involved 110 year two preclinical medical students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak from October 2020 to January 2021. Five one-hour pathology lectures were divided into two parts covering different topics of the lecture. The first half hour used conventional teaching, while the second half hour used flipped classroom. Student feedback was collected through a 19-item, self-administered questionnaire comprising 15 quantitative questions in three structured instruments and four qualitative open-ended questions. The score for mean perception of flipped classroom was significantly different according to place of residence while the mean knowledge acquisition score was significantly different among students using different internet sources. In addition, for examination preparation, slightly more than one third preferred traditional classroom. Six aspects of improvement on flipped classroom were identified: learning materials; teaching methods; quality of resource materials; class activity and interaction; choices of topics for flipped classroom; and time, pace, and atmosphere of lessons. Three aspects of significance of flipped classroom were captured, which included facilitating understanding and revision; flexible time, ability to ask and answer; and ability to share, focus and identify mistakes. A flipped classroom shows much potential in medical education. Future studies on feedback from students are needed to improve the flipped classroom to suit the Malaysian context.