Round 4 of the Teacher Development Fund (TDF) has a specific focus on blended approaches to continuing professional development and learning (CPDL). As part of the programme, the Chartered College of Teaching and Sheffield Hallam University have been commissioned as learning partners. Their first task has been to undertake a literature review on this theme. Lisa-Maria Muller shares some of the findings.
Our literature review of 30 studies taught us that blended approaches to CPDL are very heterogenous with projects taking place all across the world, using a wide range of technologies and spanning a wide range of subject disciplines. However, the arts were missing entirely from the existing research literature, meaning that findings from TDF projects will be even more important and informative.
From the literature review, we have learned that blended learning can describe a multitude of approaches, ranging from combining online platforms with face-to-face teaching or MOOCs with face-to-face teaching, on- and offline teaching or supporting classroom teaching with other media such as blogs or social media.
Blended learning programmes can also be distinguished in relation to the relationship between digital and face-to-face learning. If digital tools are merely added to an existing face-to-face teaching, the literature refers to such programmes as ‘low impact’ (ie low impact on planning and delivery), if some aspects of face-to-face delivery are replaced with digital approaches, programmes are referred to as ‘mid-impact’ (ie they have medium impact on planning and delivery). ‘High-impact’ programmes are planning from scratch as blended programmes and require the highest level of digital literacy from participants and course designers. Projects may want to reflect where they place themselves on a ‘low-impact’ to ‘high-impact’ continuum.
Our literature review also mapped features of effective CPDL as described by Sims and colleagues in a recent review into blended CPDL literature. This analysis showed that to date programmes rarely take prior learning or cognitive load into consideration, provide little opportunity for implementation or repetition but collaborative opportunities are very common. To further improve blended CPDL, projects may want to consider which elements of effective CPD they currently include and which ones they may want to introduce.
Overall, our review highlights that blended approaches to teacher CPDL can be effective but that further research is needed to understand how features of effective CPDL can be incorporated most effectively in a blended learning context, especially where the arts are concerned.
When mapping the current cohort of TDF projects against the criteria of low‑, mid‑, high impact blended approaches, it appears that the vast majority fall within the low- to mid- category as the tendency has been to add digital media to existing face-to-face programmes and to replace certain face-to-face meetings with digital aspects. However, the latter appears to be the case mainly due to Covid restrictions and not necessarily because project leads or participants prefer online interaction or regard it as carrying an inherent benefit over face-to-face meetings. Having said so, some projects have clearly taken a ‘high-impact’ approach where programmes have been planned from scratch with a careful blend of digital and face-to-face interaction in mind. Preliminary analyses also suggest that some art forms may lend themselves better to blended approaches than others and we will further explore this aspect over the next year.
We are looking forward to continuing to engage with project teams over the coming year to find out more about their experiences with blended learning to help shape future iterations of TDF and to better inform the wider sector.
The final literature review will be published on the PHF website in the autumn.
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Supported by the Teacher Development Fund, the WorldBuilders project is a two-year teacher development programme that aims to build teachers’ confidence in using media arts to teach digital literacies. Dr Becky Parry of University of Sheffield explores what they’ve learned so far.
