Review of a pivoted fully online flipped learning modality to promote reflection for early career teaching staff development

The professional development of early career teaching staff (academics and researchers) in learning and teaching practices has attracted significant attention internationally over the past two decades. Institutional agendas, national accreditation and international recognition schemes have been established to provide frameworks for the promotion of effective teaching practices through professional development programmes. Recently, though, the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the flexibility of staff development frameworks based on how they are administered and the impact that they have on the professional needs of early career teaching staff.This study takes a critical stance on a face-to-face teaching programme that is pivoted to a fully online flipped modality to accommodate the rapid transition to remote learning and teaching due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study is written as a case study from a medical school that became fully immersed in a global crisis and took steps to maintain provision in the development of teaching staff at a time when both clinical and teaching roles took precedence and plans for professional development became secondary.Utilising a combination of asynchronous and synchronous online engagement models, the paper presents a conceptual framework to foster reflective practice and reviews the workflow of promoting flexible engagement and accommodating participant-led development priorities. Analysis of assessment results by comparing pre- and post-pivot participant performances indicate a statistically significant improvement in the flipped learning version of the programme.Drawing from the theory of situated learning as a tool of investigating professional learning in the context of a developing global crisis, the paper reviews the role of social systems in facilitating flexible learning at a distance through a series of authentic collaborative activities that are designed to support the sharing of practice, promotion of reflection and to inform future approaches to learning and teaching methods.