How Students Prepare in Flipped Classrooms: A Case Study in a Physiology Class

The purpose of this study is to give suggestions on how faculty should design flipped classrooms. We conducted questionnaire and student interviews to clarify how students prepared for a physiology class at Kyoto University. The results of the questionnaire suggest that while there was a positive correlation between the preparation times and grades, some students' preparation was unproductive or inefficient. Therefore, we conducted interviews with five students to clarify the obstacles for achieving an efficient preparation. Interviews showed that one student didn't prepare at all, while the other four spent too much time on preparation without all of them achieving a high score. Not everyone recognized the significance of preparation. Additionally, four students deployed two note-taking styles - they either copied almost every word from the slides or summarized the important points from the slides. On the other hand, a student with no preparation was able to achieve average grades merely by reviewing the learning contents after the class. We found that students didn't know how to prepare appropriately for a flipped classroom, therefore it is important for instructors to specify clearly what areas students should focus on and how to efficiently take notes during their preparation.