Flipped classroom and learning among higher education students: a literature review

Abstract

The flipped classroom reorganizes the traditional teaching sequence by moving students' first contact with content outside class time and reserving teacher-supported sessions for application, analysis, collaboration, and feedback. This review aimed to analyze the implications of the flipped classroom for learning among higher education students, with emphasis on participation, autonomy, technological mediation, collaborative work, and higher-order cognitive skills. A descriptive documentary literature review with qualitative thematic synthesis was conducted using publications from 2020 to 2026. The search covered SciELO, Dialnet, Google Scholar, Redalyc, and EBSCO and identified 105 initial records. After the final eligibility check, two studies were excluded because they did not correspond to higher education, leaving an analytical corpus of 18 publications. The findings show convergent trends toward greater student agency, self-regulation, flexible time management, digital mediation, and the use of class time for problem solving, interaction, and formative feedback. Limitations were also identified in relation to technological access, prior preparation, student adaptation, and instructional design. The methodological heterogeneity of the corpus prevents the attribution of a pooled causal effect and requires the findings to be interpreted as trends within the selected literature. The review concludes that the flipped classroom can support meaningful learning when pre-class resources, in-class activities, assessment, and teacher guidance are coherently aligned.