What is it about?
Flipped classes have gained considerable support in recent years. While many studies demonstrate improved learning outcomes in flipped classes, few studies control for differences in the number of review questions provided to students (i.e., retrieval practice). Retrieval practice is well-supported in the literature for improving learning outcomes and may explain the reported improvements in flipped classes.
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Why is it important?
We conducted a randomized controlled trial and an observational trial to estimate the impact of flipped class format and retrieval practice on exam performance in a neurobiology class. Our findings suggest that the academic improvements reported in flipped class studies may be explained by an imbalance in review questions. This conclusion is supported by three important findings. 1) Review questions improved exam performance by 10.8 percentage points. 2) The flipped classroom format did not improve exam performance. 3) Students believe that flipped classes are more effective than traditional lecture classes, despite equivalent learning outcomes.
Perspectives
We hope that our work will inspire educators to include additional review questions in their classes, especially those that include a large collection of facts. Multiple-choice quizzes are easy to implement and meaningfully improve exam scores by about a letter grade. Importantly, review questions are just as effective when given in class or as homework. We also hope that future studies on flipped classes will control for differences in retrieval practice.
Jason Pitt
University of Evansville
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Dependence of learning outcomes in flipped and lecture classrooms on review questions: A randomized controlled trial and observational study, PLoS ONE, December 2022, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279296.
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