Flipped for Critical Thinking: Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Novel Teaching Approach in Postgraduate Law Modules

Flipped classroom is a novel model that can help students develop their learning skills of critical thinking by students’ engagement to enhance their learning experience through team working and pre-designed class activities with tailor-made questions. However, the literature about flipped teaching reveals that it is still underutilized and underexplored in the higher education law teaching. This study aims to fill in this gap by developing a flipped learning model that can provide a foundation in practice for higher legal education. This chapter presents a new flipped classroom model and information about how this model promotes greater critical thinking in a flipped classroom environment that was evaluated based on Module Evaluation Questionnaires and final module grades for the test of effective learning and teaching quality. Research was conducted using eleven-week-long postgraduate law modules of ‘international trade law’, ‘international criminal law’ and ‘international human rights’. Data was collected from students who completed module survey and submitted summative assessment for their final module grades. Result shows that over 90% post graduate law students found the flipped classroom model to be either effective or very effective to promote critical thinking. Students were satisfied their learning experience with their counterparts and interaction with lecturers.