Inverted Classroom Teaching of Physiology in Basic Medical Education: Bibliometric Visual Analysis

Abstract

Background: Over the last decade, there has been growing interest in inverted classroom teaching (ICT) and its various forms within the education sector. Physiology is a core course that bridges basic and clinical medicine, and ICT in physiology has been sporadically practiced to different extents globally. However, students' and teachers' responses and feedback to ICT in physiology are diverse, and the effectiveness of a modified ICT model integrated into regular teaching practice in physiology courses is difficult to assess objectively and quantitatively.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the current status and development direction of ICT in physiology in basic medical education using bibliometric visual analysis of the related literature.

Methods: A bibliometric analysis of the ICT-related literature in physiology published between 2000 and 2023 was performed using CiteSpace, a bibliometric visualization tool, based on the Web of Science database. Moreover, an in-depth review was performed to summarize the application of ICT in physiology courses worldwide, along with identification of research hot spots and development trends.

Results: A total of 42 studies were included for this bibliometric analysis, with the year 2013 marking the commencement of the field. University staff and doctors working at affiliated hospitals represent the core authors of this field, with several research teams forming cooperative relationships and developing research networks. The development of ICT in physiology could be divided into several stages: the introduction stage (2013-2014), extensive practice stage (2015-2019), and modification and growth stage (2020-2023). Gopalan C is the author with the highest citation count of 5 cited publications and has published 14 relevant papers since 2016, with a significant surge from 2019 to 2022. Author collaboration is generally limited in this field, and most academic work has been conducted in independent teams, with minimal cross-team communication. Authors from the United States published the highest number of papers related to ICT in physiology (18 in total, accounting for over 43% of the total papers), and their intermediary centrality was 0.24, indicating strong connections both within the country and internationally. Chinese authors ranked second, publishing 8 papers in the field, although their intermediary centrality was only 0.02, suggesting limited international influence and lower overall research quality. The topics of ICT in physiology research have been multifaceted, covering active learning, autonomous learning, student performance, teaching effect, blended teaching, and others.

Conclusions: This bibliometric analysis and literature review provides a comprehensive overview of the history, development process, and future direction of the field of ICT in physiology. These findings can help to strengthen academic exchange and cooperation internationally, while promoting the diversification and effectiveness of ICT in physiology through building academic communities to jointly train emerging medical talents.

Keywords: academic; academic community; bibliometric; bibliometric analysis; bibliometric visual analysis; classroom-based; evolution trend; flipped classroom; flipped classroom teaching; frontier progress; hot topics; inverted classroom; medical education; physiology; scientific knowledge map; teaching method; visual analysis; visualization tool.

Figure 1.. Network analysis map. The collaboration networks for (A) authors and national/regional collaboration (N=145, E=400) and (B) institutions (N=85, E=216) in the field of inverted teaching in physiology. Node size (N) corresponds to the frequency of inverted teaching in physiology publications from each author/institution. The connecting lines (E) represent collaborative connections between authors/institutions, with thicker lines indicating more frequent collaboration.

Figure 2.. Co-occurrence map and appearance history of keywords in literature related to inverted teaching in physiology. (A) The map of keyword clusters and the timeline map (N=131, E=459). (B) The co-occurrence map of keywords (N=233, E=795). The node size, N, corresponds to the frequency of publications from each journal. The connecting lines, E, represent collaborative connections between journals, with thicker lines indicating more frequent collaboration.