Flipped teaching is a trend within higher education. Through flipped teaching the learning environment can be altered by moving the lecture out of the classroom through online recordings, while in-classroom sessions focus on active learning and engaging students in their own learning process. In this paper, we used focus groups comprised of male students in a qualitative research course with the aim of understanding the ways in which we might improve active student engagement and motivation within the flipped classroom. The findings indicated that, within the flipped classroom, students mix surface and deep-learning approaches. The online recordings, which students interact with through a surface approach, can function as a stepping stone toward a deep-learning approach to in-class activities, but only if students come to class prepared. The findings therefore suggest that students must be made aware of the importance of preparation prior to flipped classroom in-class activities to ensure the active learning process is successful. By not listening to the recordings (e.g., due to technological failure, as was the case in this study), students can result in only employing a surface approach.