Learning radiology inside a ‘flipped’ classroom: 3 key takeaways

The “flipped classroom” learning approach—which involves students learning independently before applying what they learned inside interactive classrooms—has been shown to have a positive impact on radiology students, according to a study published in Academic Radiology.

Erin E. O'Connor, MD, department of radiology at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and colleagues alternated traditional learning with flipped learning for 175 medical students from three different institutions.

Flipped learning could make a potentially big impact on the next generation of radiologists, O’Connor and colleagues explained.

“As medical knowledge and practice continue to rapidly expand and change, it is imperative for radiologists to acquire and sharpen skills using self-directed learning,” the authors wrote. “The flipped learning approach provides medical students with the opportunity to develop self-directed learning skills while also providing opportunities to solidify already acquired knowledge and concepts through active learning strategies.”

These are three key takeaways from the team’s findings:

1. Students who learns through flipped learning tested better

The medical students in both groups all took a pretest at the start of the study, and the mean score was 53.4 percent, with no significant differences between students from the two groups. However, when looking at the post-test scores, the research team found more improvement in students who learned via flipped learning.

“The effect of instruction type is seen in the interaction between pre- and post-test scores and instruction type, reflecting a 5.36 percent greater score increase in the flipped learning than in the didactic instruction cohort,” the authors wrote.

2. Flipped learning revealed other benefits as well

O'Connor et al. explained that previous evidence has shown students can benefit from being engaged in “active learning exercises,” and their own research appears to verify those findings.  

“The results of ordinal multinomial response models confirmed that the flipped classroom group experienced higher task value, less boredom and had greater enjoyment,” the authors wrote. “There was no statistically significant difference in anxiety experienced by the two cohorts. There was no statistically significant effect of sex on task value, enjoyment, anxiety or boredom.”

The researchers added that factors such as a higher task value are more important than some instructors may realize—they can lead to improvements in students’ academic performance.

“Flipped learning may increase medical students' task value and positive achievement emotions for multiple reasons,” the authors wrote. “First, students are expected to prepare in advance so that they can participate in exercises and contribute to discussions. This responsibility encourages students to prepare by completing assignments before attending instructional sessions. Second, exploring clinical scenarios in a flipped learning context allows medical students to develop skills needed to apply learned facts to clinical decision-making.”

3. Radiology educators like flipped learning

“All of the instructors preferred the flipped learning condition, with three of the four strongly favoring it as the preferred teaching style,” the authors wrote.

Survey responses showed that three instructors agreed or strongly agreed that it was “easy to give a flipped classroom workshop,” while the fourth instructor was neutral. All four instructors agreed or strongly agreed that “students found it easy to learn in a flipped classroom workshop.”  

In addition, when asked if they were satisfied with the instruction they provided in the traditional format, only one of the instructors agreed. One instructors was neutral, and the other two either disagreed or strongly disagreed. When asked if they were satisfied with their flipped classroom instruction, however, all four instructors either agreed or strongly agreed.

Radiology Business coverage of another new approach to radiology education can be found here.