Comparison of the Effect of Teaching Methods of Flipped Class and TBL in Enhancing Psychological Empowerment.

Introduction: Today, it is felt as necessary to promote the psychological empowerment of individuals, especially at the postgraduate level using an appropriate educational approach. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of flipped class (FC) and team-based learning (TBL) in enhancing psychological empowerment.

Methods: This semi-experimental study (pretest-posttest model) was conducted on postgraduate students in the Faculty of Medicine. Ninety students were included in the study using census method. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, forty students were divided into two groups of 20 in a non-random way according to their gender and educational level. The workshop teacher randomly selected one of the groups as a TBL and the other as an FC. A two-day workshop was held for each group (12 hours of training in total). The educational method was TBL in one group and FC in another. Spritzer's Psychological Empowerment questionnaire was used for data collection in pre- and post-test (one month apart). This questionnaire includes 12 questions (based on a five-point Likert scale) to assess the 4 aspects of job meaningfulness, feeling to be qualified, feeling to be effective, and feeling to have the freedom of choice. The minimum and maximum scores are 12 and 60, respectively. The experts of the field have confirmed its reliability. Its Cronbach-Alpha values were reported in previous studies at 0.86 and 0.89, respectively. Data were analyzed using statistical tests in SPSS16 and Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney non-parametric tests.

Results: The Mann-Whitney U-test indicated no significant difference between the total mean of the two groups (FC: 35.20±1.73, TBL: 34.30±1.26) in the pre-test (P=0.157). However, there was a significant difference between the psychological empowerment scores of the two groups in the post-test (P<0.001). The Wilcoxon test showed a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores for each group (P<0.05) and the psychological empowerment scores increased in the post-test for the two groups. However, the mean of post-test score in the TBL group (M: 42.55±1.82, P<0.001) was higher than the FC group (M: 38.45±2.64, P>0.001).

Conclusion: Due to the influence of the TBL technique on psychological empowerment at the postgraduate level, it seems that TBL is more useful and practical for enhancing psychological empowerment.