Exploring the Potential of Blended Pedagogy

Abstract

Nowadays, the emerging Internet commercialization and proliferation of information technology has enriched not only the teaching and learning experiences but also provided an opportunity to engage students more, and in advance to improve the education quality. Teaching delivery modes from face-to-face to online and to blended phases reflected the progress and evolution of research and practices in teaching pedagogies. As far as blended pedagogy involving both teaching and learning activities is concerned, majority of works concentrates on blending learning in the literature. Blended teaching is seldom found in the literature. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of blended pedagogy focusing on blended teaching so as provide guidance for preparing higher education teachers to design and teach blended courses. This paper draws from relevant published literatures from higher education to discuss what teachers should know about blended learning environments. Moreover, this paper suggests that effective teacher preparation for blended instruction must integrate three broad components: contextual, instructional, and technological. Each broad component is closely aligned with common instructional design processes familiar to most teachers.