Introduction
What is the evidence available in support of FL?
Materials and methods
How the FL was used in public health teaching
Study design
Participants and recruitment
Data collection
Data analysis
Ethics and consent statement
Results
Participants’ demographic profile | Students (n = 12) | Tutors (n = 8) | |
---|---|---|---|
Age range (years) | 20–29 years | 6 | 0 |
30–49 years | 2 | 7 | |
50 + years | 0 | 1 | |
Gender | Male | 2 | 2 |
Female | 9 | 6 | |
Ethnicity | White | 7 | 6 |
Asian | 2 | 1 | |
African | 2 | 1 | |
Caribbean | 1 | 0 |
Experiences with FL—tutors perspective
“For me, a FL is where you take away most of the informational aspect of your teaching before you interact one-on-one or one to group with the students, so that the time is spent in doing sort of […] more sort of high-quality engagement, where the students really need your presence in order to appreciate the concept or ideas or issues that are being discussed [T1].
So you provide the students with materials that will introduce them to the issues, give them the most they can, before they come to the class so when you meet them they already have some understanding of the issues, and they have some questions, so it could be that they have actually tried out something using the approach and they have some difficulties somewhere trying to apply the principles, and you are there to help them address the challenges” (T5).
“In my days in the university, I guess we use to do FL although this wasn’t referred to as FL. They send you a book, videos or things to watch and you teach yourself, and then when you get to the classroom, which is infrequently, and it is much interactive. It is more like a seminar, but the lecturer isn’t delivering the content, but the lecturer is answering questions, giving activities, leading discussion, solving problems and so on” (T1).
“I think someone has redefined it as FL; I think it wasn’t called so. A lot of teachers are unaware that they are using FL, but it has been around for sometimes now” (T4).
“My understanding of FL seems to be… [Because it’s a term I haven’t really heard until now]. Probably it is what we used to call student led-teaching. Which is where the student do some preparatory reading before they come to class, and in the actual class session the teacher explores with them what they have already learned out of the class” (T2).
“So in my session, I give students what is effectively lecturing concepts and also give them some activities and things to think about before the session. So I put it on the virtual learning ……and they are meant to look at it before these sessions and then turn up ready to have some discussions. I believe I am applying FL because the traditional view is to have the lecture content in the session and do additional learning afterwards. In summary, flipping your teaching means you are trying to consolidate the learning in the classroom, the lecturer doesn’t have to be physically present to do them (T3).“I make them read materials that I have prepared, and I also suggest reading and things to think about. I put some hand-outs on there as well, so they have the option of printing it out and making notes or making notes on their computers, so they can come to the session fully prepared ready to discuss it. The idea is we have more in-depth discussions, so they can engage a bit more and get more into it” (T1).
“What I learnt in the first year of doing this is that they provide them with guidance and signposting so the first year, if I had an activity they will expect me to think of the right or wrong answer and it had to be absolutely perfect’ (T3).
Tutors motivations for using FL
“I was quite amazed about the volume of literature that is available about FL when I started to read about it. There is really a growing interest among teachers, and some of their expressions of how their students have come to value it made me to try it, and it works” (T2)
“I took a short course online on FT and this is when I found out about the differences between this approach and my way of teaching, and the advantages of FT. Also, I set up the module to be half sort of lecture delivery of information and half of group work, so consolidation and basically on these sessions, the content was…! It was quite a lot of content. That bit going on for quite a long time and [….] group work” (T3).
“…And I was talking to someone who I taught with on the module, and they actually suggested this approach, and I thought of, and I thought yeah I could actually do that. So it’s mostly reading what they have to do” (T4).
“Students should be going off and finding out information themselves, working on stuff and we should be facilitating their learning in class instead” (T5)”.“I think some students can see the benefits because they have been taught way previously at undergraduate level” (T4).
“If you look at the design of FL, it is best suited for postgraduate level learning. As a master’s student, you should be able to do a self-direct your learning and take control of the pace of the learning. I belief we can only facilitate this through FT” (T3).
Students’ perceptions of FL
Positive views/experiences
“There are people in the class who are more experienced than me. I really learn a lot from them whenever we were grouped to work on a case study. On my own, I could not understand some of the concept, but it became clearer during the class group discussion” (FG participant).
“When you learn from colleagues its sticks better than self-learning or the teaching just passing on information in class. This is why I consider the flipped approach a useful learning approach (FG participant).
“One difference for me is the way colleagues were engaging in the role play exercise. In my group, for instance, everyone was taking part and contributed in the drafting of the policy statement, and in the debrief session the participation was excellent because they had understood the concept and content” (FG participant).
Negative view/perceptions
“I think it is different; I feel like when it comes to teaching yourself, I am not a fan of it because I am here to be taught (…all laughs). Like honestly, you know! I mean, but it is different when in the policy module or in disaster management module when the tutor gives you a scenario and say read about this disaster scenario so we can talk about it, it is different you know what I mean. Unlike in epidemiology or statistics class where they say here you need to learn this by yourself, and I am like, I am not teaching myself this because it is too complicated I think that is where it depends, I won’t, I don't want to teach myself” (FG participant).“But for some modules, I think it actually did help, like the economic evaluation, the leading and managing health services and the policy modules” (FG participant).
“No, but for masters programme you are expected to do a lot of extra work. With FL, if you do not want to prepare before you come to class, I think it is a waste of time because you won’t be familiar with the topic. But when I […] prepare before I find it way more productive than just coming to class without reading the material. You are able to relate how to apply the theories, especially in case studies” (FG participant).
“The problem is, for me, I am not a fun of self-directed learning” (FG participant).“In fact me too, that is why I sign up for face-to-face masters. If I wanted to teach myself, I would have done an online study. For some modules like statistics it just doesn't work for me - FL, it is like wasting a lot of time. It is hard to even grasp some concepts” (FG participant).
Challenges tutors faced using FL with students
“As for videos I never produce my own video. I use existing videos […] I download them from YouTube, or stuff that are open access” but the good ones best suited for my course are difficult to find (T1).
“I have often found that most do not read what you have asked them to read, and when you […] in a flipped model, when they don’t read the material it is difficult to have an effective class session. I think a lot of students think that it is our job to tell them what they need to know. It is not their job to go off and do homework if you will like pre-session planning and come along and do that, and that is always a challenge” (T5).
“It depends on what the students are used to, so it could be cultural or the style they have been exposed to previously before enrolling in the masters’ course. If they are not having to go and do work and come along to teaching session then [….] we only have a year, and then you are stuck there. Because the students, it take them a semester before they realize they have to get into that and so it is challenging. You need to prepare the students, and we do not have the opportunity and time to do that” (T3).
“You need to be very familiar with the materials you give to the students because they will come and ask, if they come back and say we don’t understand what you’re talking about. It’s okay to say, if is little nitty gritty issue, to say you will have a look, But if you’re clueless about a broad content, you can’t go away with it. You need to pair your activities in the classroom quite closely with the materials that you gave them otherwise they get illusion. They spend so much time to read the material and they had difficulty getting it and then they turn up and what you are doing has nothing to do with that, then they feel it’s like a waste of their time. And they will be less motivated to do the reading next time. So you have to make sure that the two things work closely together. Training on flipping can help address this issue (T-1).“I think it’s a completely different way of teaching and, if you think you can just throw things in there, you will be disappointed. I am not saying people can’t do it, and we do it, I try to throw in bits, but it’s not going to be done properly (T3).