Three common misconceptions that thwart school improvement
October 3, 2018 |Misconceptions are dangerous things. They shackle our visions of what’s possible and doom us to consequences we do not expect. For example, a student who believes her genes predetermine her academic abilities may avoid crucial learning experiences that are initially challenging. A student who believes his postgraduation success will flow from his intellectual prowess may […]
Who are great blended-learning teachers?
September 6, 2018 |What does it take to be a great teacher in a blended program? To ask that same question in education parlance, what competencies—meaning motives, traits, self-concepts, values, knowledge, and skills—matter most for teachers who are substituting online learning for part of face-to-face instruction? Online and blended learning are relatively new. The precise list of competencies […]
The do’s and don’ts of blended teaching for remediation
August 29, 2018 |Blended learning started in many cases by serving students in nontraditional settings (as disruptive innovations do), but we know that blended approaches have since grown, expanded, and evolved to serve millions of students in a variety of settings. Blended learning is now employed to meet a wide range of needs across student populations, and no […]
The key to successful change initiatives? Early adopter teachers
August 22, 2018 |It is 5pm on a Tuesday in April, and Liz has just dropped her daughter off at cheer practice. Instead of heading home to think about dinner, chatting with other moms, or checking her social media accounts, Liz spends the next 95 minutes in a nearby Starbucks completing three playlists for her engineering design class. […]
How teachers can go blended (when they’re the only one)
August 14, 2018 |Many teachers interested in implementing blended learning may be deterred by challenges in their school contexts. Perhaps each classroom only receives a few computers, or perhaps blended learning is not a priority for school administration. So how might a teacher blend their classroom without the support of a school- or district-wide initiative? Innovation theory and […]
Is higher education teaching teachers to blend?
August 1, 2018 |In recent years, a lot of time and effort has been put into professional development and training for in-service teachers to prepare them to teach in a blended environment. Teacher preparation institutions have begun to take a more proactive role to improve preservice teacher exposure to blended teaching before they enter the classroom. For example, some states […]