Giving Compass' Take:

· Emily Pulham at the Christensen Institute discusses blended learning and how teachers are being taught the skills they need to teach through trainings and higher education institutions.

· How are teachers being taught to teach blended learning? Is the training offered helpful? 

· Read more about blended learning.

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 like Utah have even mandated that preservice teachers learn to teach effectively in blended environments. Additionally, new Teacher Educator Technology Standards published in 2017 included the standard that teacher educators “model blended learning strategies,” and “provide opportunities for teacher candidates to practice teaching … in blended learning environments.”  We wanted to know if and where teacher preparation programs are addressing blended teaching pedagogy within their curriculum. And specifically, which teacher preparation programs—if any—deliberately include coursework on teaching teachers how to blend?

To answer this question my colleague Jackie Jolly and I sent a survey to university administrators, deans, and faculty throughout the U.S. to start to gauge the type of coursework offered by institutions that address blended teaching pedagogy, or that offer graduate training in blended and/or online teaching*. As schools of education make updates to their programs, we wanted to know, beyond just technology integration, what current course offerings specifically address blended teaching pedagogy.

Read the full article about teaching teachers blended learning by Emily Pulham at the Christensen Institute.