Flipping the Classroom in Health Care Higher Education: A Systematic Review

The flipped classroom is an approach to teaching with independent and asynchronous study of content by students and active learning during scheduled class times.

The purpose of this review was to systematically examine research on the use of the flipped classroom approach in health professions education.

Eleven electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed literature from 2005 through September 2017. Inclusion criteria for studies addressed health professions students and quantitative outcomes (quizzes, examinations, course grades).

Of the 49 articles identified, 24 met the inclusion criteria. The majority of studies (n = 17) noted a significant improvement in at least 1 student academic outcome using the flipped classroom compared with the traditional lecture.

This systematic review of the effects of the flipped classroom approach for the education of health professions students did not reveal compelling evidence for the effectiveness of the method in improving academic outcomes above that of traditional classroom approaches.