Episode 83: The Evolution of Classroom Learning with the Advent of Blended Learning Techniques

Embark on an educational expedition as I navigate the complex landscape of K-12 education transformed by the emergence of blended learning. Together, we'll uncover the profound impact of intertwining traditional classroom instruction with digital innovation. I'll dissect the myriad of challenges and benefits that face students, teachers, and parents in this new era, where the classroom is no longer bound by four walls. From the critical need for adept teacher training to the essential role of technology and online safety, my discussion will reveal the rich tapestry of opportunities for personalized learning paths and the cultivation of indispensable 21st-century skills. Yet, with these advancements come potential pitfalls, such as unequal access to technology and the looming specter of increased workloads for educators.

As the world of education evolves, so too must our understanding of its shifting dynamics, especially in reflection of an unprecedented year like 2020. I'll also tackle the varying responses to technology's role across different racial and ethnic communities, probing how blended learning can serve as a conduit for personalization and equity. Throughout, I'll acknowledge the hurdles that lie ahead while celebrating the transformative potential that this hybrid model holds for reshaping the future of education.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening.

Speaker 1: 1:52

On today's episode, I'll be discussing blended learning, its impact on achievement and the positives and negatives of this teaching and learning approach. Have you heard about blended learning? This is another one of those educational topics that's popular in many school districts, yet you may not fully understand what's involved in it. The findings from various research studies indicate that it could be beneficial for student academic achievement. Yet much about this approach is unclear and the results are mixed. In any case, this is yet another topic that you will want to be aware of, as it is probably implemented in several schools in your child's district. Let's get started.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Blended learning has become a popular teaching and learning approach in today's educational environment. Some remote and rural areas, however, struggle to find a suitable teaching approach, and this has led to some teacher retention issues in those communities. Blended learning is basically defined as a combination of traditional face-to-face and online instruction. Students and parents who have experienced blended learning seem to prefer blended learning when compared to strictly online education. This approach has been adapted in many schools worldwide, yet there is still work to be done to make it more effective. For one thing, the training of teachers, students and parents is critical. Technology also plays a role, and a crucial one at that, and all stakeholders need to be aware of online safety rules. Blended learning has been around since the early 2000s, a hybrid approach that really took off after the development of the worldwide web.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Although there are disadvantages and advantages of blended learning, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. These advantages include motivating students because of the face-to-face component of blended learning. The students also seem to feel more independent in their education using the blended learning approach, because it helps them study at their own pace. Students also become active knowledge seekers rather than just absorbing information presented by a teacher. The blended learning approach is also cost efficient from a financial point of view because students and teachers have the flexibility to not have to be in the classroom every day. Another advantage is that blended learning maximizes the value of face-to-face time, allowing students to flesh out questions about difficult topics, identify and resolve assumptions and misconceptions about a topic, build community, perform hands-on activities and address any questions that students may have about the technology. One disadvantage of blended learning is that all students may not have access to technology. Students may also have a fair amount of struggle in using the technology properly, especially students in rural areas. Blended learning also makes for additional work for teachers, although there are resources provided for them to use as guidelines in finding the right balance between online and face-to-face learning. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Blended learning is a process that blends the strengths of one modality while neutralizing the weaknesses of the other modality in order to provide flexibility to learners, educators and educational institutions. This flexibility can be in time, space, path and pace, utilizing sequential or parallel designs. The design of blended learning systems means going beyond simply shifting from on-site to online and vice versa. It's an approach that requires a number of factors, including the purpose of blended learning, the pace and timing, ensuring that online and on-site spaces supplement each other, and whether blended learning will follow a single path or multiple paths for students to traverse. The ultimate goal of blended learning is to facilitate a flexible learning and teaching experience that will transform learning into a more dynamic process. When implementing a blended learning environment, proper transition needs to be provided to ensure that the communication, interaction and flow of knowledge exists between on-site and online modalities. Blended learning is applicable in K-12 settings as well as in higher education.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Blended learning is also used in enhancing students' knowledge and skills. It supports student-centered learning by providing interactive learning activities with the aim of encouraging students' integration, interaction, presentation, discussion, sharing and group work as a way to develop 21st-century skills using this approach. The student-centered approach in blended learning also has an impact on increasing students' academic performance with soft and hard skills. Research has provided benefits to blended learning, including the improvement and motivation of learners, attitudinal enhancement, academic achievement, teamwork, skills acquisition, etc. So students are also granted a wide variety of opportunities to extend their knowledge, abilities and competencies beyond the classroom through online learning endeavors. The skills that are required through a blended learning experience help to develop students' 21st-century proficiencies, such as the integration of knowledge and competencies. Whether as well as in the conventional classrooms or on virtual platforms, blended learning helps to improve 21st-century employability, soft skills in communication, leadership learning, it and innovation.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Blended learning is simply a pathway to student-centered learning at scale in order to allow each child to achieve his or her fullest potential, but it's not a guaranteed success. When optimally performed, blended learning breaks through the barriers of the use of time, place, path to understanding and pace to allow each student to work according to his or her individual needs, whether that be in groups or alone, on practice, problems or projects, offline or online. It preserves the benefits of traditional teaching methods and provides new benefits like personalization, access and equity and cost control. School culture is also an important factor when implementing a blended learning environment. Blended learning can accelerate a gluten culture and make it great, but it can also accelerate a bad culture and make it terrible. As with most educational approaches, blended learning is no panacea. It's a scalable strategy, be it for work, school leaders need to start with the overall goal of the project putting the right design team in place and understanding learning from the student perspective. It's certainly not about starting with technology. It's more about understanding and undertaking a careful design process to unlock its potential.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Although blended learning is popular in many American classrooms, there still isn't strong evidence that this approach helps K-12 students. Several researchers went and asked whether blended learning works or not. Usually answer with it depends. For one thing, blended learning looks different from school to school. In some schools, teachers have a big say in which programs students use at different times, while in other schools, in-person teachers have connection to separate labs where students work online. Also, in some schools, self-directed online programs are more likely to be an enrichment for advanced students, while other schools focus on remediation for struggling students. Based on recent reports, blended learning seems to make statistically significant gains for K-12 students on either math or reading tests. Very limited research has provided results on the impact of blended learning in terms of achieving desired learning outcomes. This may be because students' learning style influenced their achievement and, if mediated in a hybrid learning environment like blended learning, could result in evaluation and performance of blended learning environments.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Blended learning emphasizes achievement by implementing the right technology to match the right individual learning preference, so that the right skills can be transferred to the right person at the right time. Blended learning is not meant to interrupt the traditional phase-to-phase environment, but to blend it with collaboration technology and the student. There's no fixed rule on how much of what parts of a blended learning program that needs to be used as part of internet components. Estimates are that roughly 90% of courses offered in higher ed in the future will be in a blended learning environment. Intellectual ability, as well as learning style, affects academic achievement. Learning style is basically defined as a distinctive and habitual matter of acquiring knowledge, skills or attitudes through study or experience. It's a combination of cognitive, emotional and psychological characteristics of learners that work together as coherent indicators of learners' perceptions about their learning environment, how they interact with and respond to their surroundings. Using multimedia, the blended learning environment may work for some students, but not every student is able to use material well, because their learning styles influence their learning achievement. Learning style, then, is important when utilizing blended learning.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Student participation is the main barrier in blended learning implementations. Clinton learning is showing some modest gains as far as having a positive impact on student achievement. It exists in school districts everywhere these days. Yet many schools find that there's a gap between what they aspire to accomplish with technology and what they can actually make happen. The disconnect is caused from various factors, including students' lack of access away from school, teachers' lack of confidence in using digital tools and a murky research space for blended learning. Trying to understand the research on blended learning is complicated by a number of factors. One, blended learning programs are often implemented in different ways under different conditions, and many studies really don't have a standard definition of what blended learning encompasses. Also, technology evolves so fast that research can focus on a digital tool or system one year and that system is outmoded within a few years. The power of blended learning is in its ability to personalize education to meet each student's needs. Blended learning is going to remain part of the society, so it's important to learn how to balance it in our lives.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Three issues become apparent during the implementation of blended learning in 2020. Technological expectations, mental health and teacher preparation. Teachers had to adapt to implementing blended learning strategies in addition to their regular duties. They also had to understand a wide variety of platforms to create collaborative online communities that would continue to facilitate student learning While making the adjustment on the fly, so to speak, and during that time, schools generally failed to achieve one of the most important aspects of a successful implementation, and that is to be clear in their expectations for both teachers and students. A lack of socialization and increased workloads plagued students and teachers during the early implementation of blended learning in 2020. There was a loss of human connection, which exacerbated mental health issues, especially for students.

Speaker 1: 15:57

Access to technology has always been a determining factor in issues of inequity and inequality in education. This was especially true in 2020, when access to technology was quite frustrating because it was a key component for student access to courses and learning materials outside the classroom. These issues are something certainly to keep in mind when utilizing the blended learning approach. Implementing blended learning requires a balancing act for schools and teachers. Findings from a 2016 poll conducted by Education Next, which is an academic journal issued by Stanford's Hoover Institution, indicated that 51% of parents think high school students should spend 30% of their time or more receiving instruction on a computer. That's actually down from 57% who held that view the previous year. The poll results also indicated that Hispanics and African Americans tend to be more receptive to students spending more time with tech in schools, compared to whites, who tended to be more skeptical of blended learning.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic. The main action for you regarding blended learning is to basically be aware of whether this teaching and learning mode is being utilized in your child's school. Take note of how your child is doing academically, in other words, notice whether his or her grades were better in the traditional classroom setup as compared to a blended learning model. On the other hand, pay attention to whether their grades and engagement improved when using the blended learning approach.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Research indicates that the tasks typically performed by parents who have students in K-12 online learning environment, including blended learning, include helping their children organize their work, guiding them through the school work and motivating them to make progress. Additionally, two other parent behaviors revealed important practices for supporting student-centered learning environments like that of blended learning. These include adapting and leveraging. Leveraging is basically a behavior in which parents adjust their instructional strategies, learning environments, daily schedules to accommodate their children's learning needs. Leveraging was a behavior that parents could access support and materials from a variety of sources in order to meet their children's learning needs. Your involvement in your child's academic progress is critical, regardless of the modality.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Here are this episode's takeaways. Blended learning is simply a pathway to student-centered learning at scale in order to allow his child to achieve his or her fullest potential, but is not a guaranteed success. When optimally performed, blended learning breaks through the barriers of the use of time, place, path to understanding and pace to allow each student to work according to his or her individual needs, whether that be in a group or alone, on practice, problems or projects, online or offline. It preserves the benefits of traditional teaching methods and provides new benefits like personalization, access and equity and cost control. Blended learning emphasizes achievement by implementing the right technology to match the right individual learning practices, so that the right skills can be transferred to the right person at the right time.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Blended learning is not meant to interrupt the traditional face-to-face environment, but to blend it with collaboration, technology and the student. Blended learning is showing some modest gains as far as having a positive impact on student achievement. It exists in school districts everywhere these days. Yet many schools find that there's a gap between what they aspire to accomplish with technology and what they can actually make happen. The disconnect is caused from various factors, including students' lack of internet access away from school teachers' lack of confidence in using digital tools and a murky research base for blended learning. As with most educational approaches, blended learning is no panthea. It's a scalable strategy, but for it to work, school leaders need to start with the overall goal of the project putting the right design team in place and understanding learning from the student perspective. It's certainly not about starting with technology. It's more about undertaking a careful design process to unlock its potential.

Speaker 1: 21:32

If you enjoyed this episode, then do me a favor and leave me a rating, a review or a comment on Apple or PodChaser. Leaving me a review is a great way to support me and help my podcast grow, and remember to share this episode with anyone that you think provided valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode, I'll be sharing my thoughts on living with courage. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.