Impact of the flipped classroom strategy in the learning environment in surgery: A comparison with the lectures

Abstract

Introduction: The Facultad de Medicina of the Universidad de La Sabana routinely uses lectures as the major educational strategy in clinical areas. Since 2012, a curriculum in context and a flipped classroom were introduced in the surgery course.

Objective: To compare the impact of lectures versus the flipped classroom model in the learning environment in surgery.

Materials and methods: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was administered to four cohorts of students. The five domains and the overall scores for both strategies were analyzed, and ANOVA was used to determine the differences among the domains (p<0.05). The internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Results: There were 207 participants (men: 36%) that completed the questionnaire (age: 21.9 ± 1.49 years old). The overall DREEM score and the subscales were higher with the flipped classroom, which suggests that this environment had a higher level of excellence. The ANOVA for each domain and the overall scores showed no differences with a flipped classroom. However, significant differences were identified in all domains and the overall scores with lectures (p<0.01). There were high levels of reliability (Cronbach>0.90) for all measurements in both environments, and there was consistency across all cohorts.

Conclusions: The flipped classroom strategy showed a higher score than the lecture-based approach according to the DREEM questionnaire. Identifying factors with a negative score is crucial to improving the learning environment. It is necessary to conduct further measurements over time to ensure the quality and success of the strategy.