Objective To explore the effectiveness of a mind map-driven modified flipped classroom model in the teaching of "physical diagnostics" for students in the major of biological engineering.

Methods Students majoring in biomedical engineering from Capital Medical University, enrolled in the classes of 2022 and 2023, were selected as the research subjects. Traditional teaching and modified flipped classroom approaches were respectively employed for the "physical diagnostics" course on head and neck examination, and the assessment scores of the two groups were compared. A questionnaire survey was conducted among students in the modified flipped classroom group to evaluate the teaching model's application effectiveness, identify its strengths and limitations, and gather students' suggestions for improvement.

Results A total of 29 students received traditional teaching, while 43 students received the modified flipped classroom approach. The modified flipped classroom group scored significantly higher than the traditional teaching group in assessments of inductive and summarization thinking abilities (40.80 ± 4.13 vs. 37.79 ± 5.97, P=0.023). There was no statistically significant difference in theoretical knowledge assessment scores between the two groups (P=0.634). A total of 29 valid questionnaires were collected. All students expressed "very satisfied" or "relatively satisfied" with the modified flipped classroom, with "relatively satisfied" being more common (68.97% vs. 31.03%, P=0.004). Regarding whether the mind maps were intuitive and easy to understand, all students selected "very intuitive" or "relatively intuitive", with "relatively intuitive" being more common (68.97% vs. 31.03%, P=0.004). The feature "clear hierarchical structure" of the mind maps was selected by the highest proportion of students as their favorite aspect (96.55%).

Conclusions The integration of mind mapping into the flipped classroom demonstrates good applicability and helps enhance students' learning efficiency as well as their inductive and summarization thinking abilities.

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