Conventional lectures vs the flipped classroom: Comparison of teaching models in undergraduate curriculum

Abstract

Education has been in the forefront of a catalyzing change due to the advent of technology and newer ideologies that has revolutionized today’s class- rooms. The educators are looking into newer teaching models to produce successful graduates in the current era. Primary research on a new pedagogy technique known as ‘The flipped classroom’ has been positive and its implementation in the undergraduate dental curriculum has been the least explored in educational research. The aim of this study was to compare the ac ademic performance of undergraduate dental students using conventional lectures and ‘The Flipped Classroom’ for the subject of Periodontics. This ret rospective study was conducted in two groups of undergraduate students who belonged to two academic years: Group I 2016 (n=75); Group II 2017 (n=75). Group I students learned the subject of Periodontology with conventional lectures whereas, Group II students were taught with ‘The Flipped Classroom’ where subject videos were viewed prior to the class session and interactive in-class activities were employed. The academic performance (summative assessment) of the students was evaluated using a written examination conducted at the end of final year of their undergraduate course. The comparison of the summative assessment was performed using independent t-test. The academic performance of Group II students (140.03 ± 7.14) was better than Group I students (129.21 ± 11.43) and statistically significant with p-value 0.000. Our implementation of the flipped classroom for Periodontology topics showed a promising platform for technology in education and with a significant improvement in the student’s academic performance when compared to traditional lectures.