Improving Nursing Students' Critical Thinking Disposition Through a Gamified Flipped Classroom: A Quasiexperimental Study

Combining gamification with the flipped classroom as a novel teaching method for enhancing the learning process has theoretical advantages.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the gamified flipped classroom method on the critical thinking disposition of undergraduate nursing students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

This study was a single-group, quasiexperimental design with a pretest and a posttest. This study was conducted on 60 fourth-semester nursing students. The intervention consisted of a gamified flipped classroom, with the preclass component delivered on a virtual learning management system with games and the in-class component gamified in face-to-face classes. The Persian version of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) was used.

A statistically significant improvement was observed in overall critical thinking disposition and in the subscales of open-mindedness, analyticity, and maturity following the implementation of the gamified flipped classroom (p = 0.001). Effect sizes were moderate to strong (95% CI: -0.71 to -0.47).

This study suggests that integrating a gamified flipped classroom with in-class games may enhance nursing students' disposition toward critical thinking.