Use of medical students in a flipped classroom programme in nutrition education for fourth-grade school students

Abstract

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a flipped classroom progamme, designed and implemented by medical students, in communicating nutrition education to fourth-grade school students aged 9–10 years and to characterise teachers’ assessments of the progamme, which was designed to minimise the burden placed on teachers.

Design:

Each student–participant served as control before and as case after exposure to the novel healthSLAM (hS) curriculum. The results on the pre-tests and post-tests were matched and compared. Teachers completed a one-time survey after observing the new curriculum.

Setting:

The study was conducted in 2013 in the fourth-grade classrooms of an elementary school in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, USA.

Methods:

The hS progamme included a web-based video that delivered nutrition education didactics and a classroom portion in which medical students guided exercises to reinforce nutrition concepts discussed in the video. A pre-test and post-test were given to students, and teachers completed a survey to determine the effects of the curriculum on nutrition knowledge, and teacher surveys were administered to assess the appropriateness and acceptability of the curriculum. In all, 166 students’ pre- and post-tests from nine different classrooms were analysed.

Results:

Significant improvements in nutrition knowledge in both median and mean test scores were found (p < .001), and the raw pre-test and post-test score distributions were found to be homogeneous across the nine different classrooms studied. Teachers reported the new curriculum to be feasible and grade-appropriate.

Conclusion:

The hS programme, rooted in flipping pedagogy using a video didactic lecture and an activity-based classroom session to reinforce concepts, appeared to communicate nutrition information successfully and was seen as both feasible and acceptable by teachers.

Keywords

Curriculum flipped classroom medical students nutrition education USA

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