To Flip or Not to Flip? Analysis of a Flipped Classroom Pedagogy in a General Biology Course

The flipped classroom is a relatively new pedagogical technique in which what was once considered “homework” is now done in the classroom, and what was once done in the classroom is now done during out-of-class time. The development of electronic technology has helped make this “flip” possible as students can now watch lectures at home, freeing class time to involve them in more engaging activities. A review of the literature shows a rapid adoption of this technique among teaching professionals. However, relatively few studies exist comparing flipped and nonflipped courses using an experimental or quasi-experimental approach. In an attempt to better understand the flipped technique and evaluate its purported superiority in terms of student learning gains, the authors conducted an experiment comparing a flipped classroom to a traditional lecture classroom. Although the outcomes were mixed, regarding the superiority of either pedagogical approach, there does seem to be a trend toward performance gains using the flipped pedagogy. We strongly advocate for a larger multiclass study to further clarify this important pedagogical question.