Active Learning in Health Professions

McLaughlin, J. E., Roth, M. T., Glatt, D. M., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C. A, Griffin, L. M., Esserman, Denise A., Mumper, R. J. (2014). The flipped classroom: a course redesign to foster learning and engagement in a health professions school. Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 89(2), 236–43.

The article, The Flipped Classroom: A Course Redesign to Foster Learning and Engagement in Health Professions School (McLaughlin, J. E., Roth, M. T., Glatt, D. M., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C. A, Griffin, L. M., Esserman, Denise A. & Mumper, R. J., 2014) is about how the University of North Carolina (UNC) Eshelman School of Pharmacy redesigned the course, Basic Pharmaceuticals II, using a flipped classroom model. The course redesign was “inspired by a desire to transform the educational experiences of our students and to meet students’ requests for enhanced in-class active learning experiences” (p. 237). The article discussed what changes were implemented in the course redesign; they include, replacing in-class lectures with on-line videos to watch outside of class and then spending valuable class time on active learning exercises. The three main element focal points include, offloaded content (recorded videos, etc.), student centered-learning and appropriate assessments.

In trying to determine if implementing a flipped-classroom model would be effective the researchers obtained approval from the UNC institutional review board in order to administer pre- and post-surveys regarding demographic information, students’ perceptions of active learning activities, preferred curriculum delivery format and engagement. In addition, they collected data on exam scores and additional assessment tools and compared the outcomes of traditional classroom format (class of 2011) to those that participated in the flipped classroom format (class of 2012). The overall findings validated that overall student learning increased after participating in a flipped-classroom format.

Review of Strengths and Contributions

Organization – The organization of this article was well constructed. I particularly valued that the authors compared the traditional lecture and course design to the newly implemented student-centered pedagogy.

Contribution to Field – The authors acknowledge that there have been many significant changes to how healthcare is delivered and discussed the increasingly complex healthcare system, yet state, “little has changed in the way that education is structured and delivered to aspiring health professionals” (p. 236). This articles contributes to the field that by incorporating active learning into a classroom, it can enhance learning, improve outcomes, and fully equip students to address 21st-century health care needs.

Literature Review – In my review of the article what I found most interesting is what is happening in traditional classrooms. Some of those happenings included, “students’ attention declines substantially and steadily after the first 10 minutes of class and that the average attention span of a medical student is 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning of class. Although students’ attention returns in the last few minutes of class, they remember only 20% of the material presented during that time. Furthermore, passive learning in hour-long lectures often bores students and can deprive them of rich educational experiences” (McLaughlin et al., 2014, p. 236).

Analysis/Finding – The authors compared pre- and post-course survey responses, course evaluations responses and final exam scores between the traditional and flipped-classroom cohorts. The finding conclude that the students in the flipped classroom evaluated the overall class better in areas such as, comprehension of material, engagement during class, preparedness, etc.

Discussion/Conclusions – The authors discussed in detail how the course was being redesigned but more importantly, in my opinion, honestly discussed the time commitment on both the instructor and the teaching assistants (TA). While the initial time commitment by the faculty is significant, it will decrease in subsequent years, however for the TA the time commitment will remain static. By showing the time commitment implications, I feel that future teachers will feel motivated to incorporate active learning techniques and feel confident that in subsequent classes or years they will not need to devote so much time on planning for the same class material.

Miscellaneous – What I particularly found valuable was some of the next steps and changes that will be implemented for the spring 2013 class. Some of those changes include: no longer considering the textbook to be required reading, replacing the student presentations and discussion with a new 30-minute active learning exercise, and creating “an online 411 Pharmacopedia to be used as an information portal for expanding concepts, new technologies, breaking news, current clinical trials, new drug products, and Web links” (McLaughlin et al., 2014, p. 242). This showed that the authors were incorporating ways to improve the course.

Response

In my blog post from last week, I reviewed the article Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research (Prince, 2004). While I am in the infant stages of researching IF and HOW active learning works, I happily find myself being drawn into wanting more information. Some of my curiosity revolves around how students balance their in-class time with their out of class responsibilities and what are the long-term material retention statistics for those who participate in an active learning setting versus a traditional lecture classroom setting.

I am interested in implementing more active learning sessions for a course that I co-direct for fourth year medical students. During their final year of medical school, the students are in their elective rotations locally and across the country. In the spring, prior to graduation, we bring them back for a two-week course that is designed to help prepare their transition into residency. There are some active learning sessions during these two weeks, but approximately 80% of the course sessions are lecture based. In working with the director of the course, we are trying to develop sessions that involve more student involvement and particularly enhance ways to assess their clinical skills. I feel this article (McLaughlin et al., 2014) and the study described within can help persuade administration to allow us to achieve our goals of designing more active learning sessions and move away from the traditional lecture-based sessions.

References

McLaughlin, J. E., Roth, M. T., Glatt, D. M., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C. A, Griffin, L. M., Esserman, Denise A., Mumper, R. J. (2014). The flipped classroom: a course redesign to foster learning and engagement in a health professions school. Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 89(2), 236–43.

Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work ? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(July), 223–231.