Effect of Flipped Classroom Instruction on Critical Thinking Skills of Business Education Students in Federal Universities in North West Nigeria

This study examined the effect of flipped classroom instruction on the critical thinking skills of Business Education students in federal universities in North West Nigeria. The flipped classroom model, in which direct instructional content is delivered through pre-class digital materials and class time is devoted to active application and discussion, has gained empirical support as a strategy for developing higher-order thinking. For Business Education students, who must develop analytical and decision-making competencies for professional practice, this model offers a promising alternative to traditional lecture-based instruction. Anchored in the Bloom Taxonomy of Cognitive Development and the Constructivist Learning Theory, this study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The population comprised 800 200-level Business Education students in four federal universities in Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna, and Zamfara States. A purposive sample of 120 students was assigned to experimental and control groups. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Nigerian adapted version) was used as the pretest and posttest instrument. Analysis of Covariance was employed for hypothesis testing. Results demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in critical thinking among flipped classroom participants, with sub-scale gains strongest in inference and interpretation skills. Gender did not moderate the effect significantly. The study recommends the institutionalization of the flipped classroom model in Business Education programmes in North West federal universities, supported by lecturer training and digital content development funding. Keywords: flipped classroom, critical thinking, business education, federal universities, North West Nigeria