The impact of large-class flipped classrooms incorporating design thinking on self-awareness, team collaboration, learning efficiency, and comprehensive literacy of clinical medicine undergraduates.

CONTEXT

Jining Medical University has adopted the traditional large-class teaching mode in its Histology and Embryology course. In this mode, students' participation and learning outcomes are not satisfactory.

OBJECTIVE

To solve this problem, we integrated design thinking into the large-class flipped teaching.

METHOD

A mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) was employed. Participants were from the university's Clinical Medicine Program, randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received integrated flipped classroom instructions, whereas the control group received traditional large-class teaching. Data were collected using an empathy canvas, questionnaires, and classroom assessments.

RESULTS

Analysis of 24 empathy maps identified 32 learning gains and 18 pain points, categorized into four dimensions: self-awareness, teamwork, learning efficiency, and comprehensive competencies. Survey results showed 89.3% of students found this teaching model enhanced knowledge comprehension, 85.3% reported no increased learning burden, and 80% acknowledged improved comprehensive abilities. Significant gender differences emerged in resource preferences (males favored interactive resources while females preferred structured materials) and perceived learning burden (p < 0.05). Classroom assessments revealed no statistically significant difference between the experimental group (75.87 ± 12.06) and control group (74.25 ± 12.65) (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The large - class flipped classroom model integrated with design thinking has the potential to enhance learning outcomes and comprehensive literacy without imposing an additional burden. This model shows potential for application in the teaching of histology and embryology. However, further validation is needed to confirm its applicability across different content areas and learning environments.