Exploring blended and hybrid learning experiences as aspects of teachers’ digital competence: Field-based explorations in Norway and the US

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Case studies of teachers in diverse contexts: integrating digital tools and competencies, and early career transitions

Proposal

As a contribution to this year’s conference theme, Envisioning Education in a Digital Society, this roundtable discussion situates blended and hybrid learning experiences as an important aspect of teachers' digital competence. For this on-going study, we selected a design research approach to explore the use of hybrid and blended environments in our respective teacher education contexts. Design research has as its goal the ability to improve practice, and “provides opportunities to explore possibilities for creating novel learning environments” (Author, 2018a, p. 5). Specifically, we are engaged in an informed exploration to better understand the use of blended and hybrid environments in teacher education and teachers’ perspectives about the affordances of these environments. Our informed exploration consists of a literature review on blended and hybrid learning spaces combined with a field-based exploration (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) in which we immersed our respective teaching practices in blended and hybrid environments to establish viable principles and potential applications in education. In this roundtable discussion, we present our field-based exploration as individual cases, the Norway case and the US case with attention to the ways these environments may impact teachers’ professional digital competence.

Digital competence is multifaceted, consisting of technological competence, content knowledge, attitudes to technology use, pedagogical competence, cultural awareness, critical approach and professional engagement (Author, 2018b; Skantz-Åberg et al., 2022). Blended and hybrid learning involves,

... instructor and learners working together in mixed delivery modes ... to accomplish learning outcomes that are pedagogically supported through assignments, activities, and assessments as appropriate for a given mode and which bridge course environments in a manner meaningful to the learner. (McGee & Reis, 2012, p. 9)

Rather than viewing hybrid and blended learning environments as merely facilitators of opportunity and access, we draw from the concept of pedagogical ecology (Frielick, 2004) and the theory of affordance (Gibson, 1977). Pedagogical ecology “emphasizes the potential impact of the learning space and the consideration of the effects that multiple components of a learning environment bring forth to the teaching and learning process” (Dabbagh et al., 2019, p. 17). In this presentation, Gibson’s (1977) definition of affordance is viewed as the complementary relationship between the learning environments and the facets of digital competence.
The Norway case is set in a three-semester part-time teacher education program aimed at qualifying teachers for grades 8-13 and focused on subject didactics, pedagogical components and school-based practice. The US case draws from an advanced graduate program that prepares P-12 teachers as designers of innovative digital learning experiences to support P12 classroom practice. Each case implemented a unique design of hybrid and blended learning that began in Fall 2021. Data sources included surveys, course evaluations (Norway), teacher reflections (US), and researchers’ reflections (Norway/US).

We present preliminary findings generated from quantitative and qualitative analyses and lessons learned from design implementations through the lens of teachers’ professional digital competence. Our work responds to calls for teacher education programs to include blended and hybrid learning approaches as an aspect of teachers’ professional digital competence (Authors, 2023).

Authors

• Dawn Hathaway, George Mason University

• Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir, Universitetet i Oslo - Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning