Effectiveness of blended teaching in preservice teacher education: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Blended teaching (BT) has the potential to prepare preservice teachers with lifelong learning capabilities that are essential for the constantly changing teaching profession. However, little is known about its effectiveness in this field. This review evaluated the effectiveness of BT in preservice teacher education, compared to conventional teaching approaches. A total of 15 experimental studies were included in the meta-analysis. Standardized differences in mean were chosen to compute the pooled effect size at 95% confidence interval (CI). The results demonstrate that BT outperformed the conventional teaching approaches in influencing preservice teachers’ academic performance (d = 0.922 (95% CI [0.403, 1.436], p < 0.001)), anxiety (d = −0.27 (95% CI [−0.537, −0.003], p = 0.048)), attitude (d = 1.302 (95% CI [0.008, 2.595], p = 0.049)), and self-efficacy for teaching (d = 0.54 (95% CI [0.203, 0.877], p = 0.002)). Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• blended teaching
• initial teacher education
• preservice teacher
• professional development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the National Funding for Social Science [19CMZ025].

Notes on contributors

Kang Ma

Kang Ma, PhD, is a lecturer at Jiangsu Provincial Key Constructive Laboratory for Big Data of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Yancheng Teachers University. His research interests lie within teacher education with a focus on teacher self-efficacy.

Junhua Zhang

Junhua Zhang, PhD, is a professor in the School of Education, Yancheng Teachers University, and his research focuses on teacher professional development, cooperation between school and family, and educational psychology.

Muhammad Chutiyami

Muhammad Chutiyami, PhD, is a lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His research focuses on public health and early childhood education.

Luyao Liang

Luyao Liang is a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, and his research interests lie within early childhood education with a focus on teacher professional development.

Jingjing Dong

Jingjing Dong is an associate lecturer in the School of School of Education, Yancheng Teachers University. Her research interests focus on teacher education at the primary level.