Comparing K-12 online and blended teaching competencies: a literature review

ABSTRACT

This article presents a synthesis of reports and research on K-12 blended teaching competencies compared with K-12 online teaching competencies. The skills needed to teach in online and blended environments are distinct from traditional teaching, but teacher education programs often do not equip preservice teachers for the new modes of instruction. Additionally, there is a dearth of research on blended teaching competencies. This review synthesizes 8 blended teaching documents and 10 online teaching documents. Seven global themes identified in both competency domains are (1) pedagogy, (2) management, (3) assessment, (4) technology, (5) instructional design, (6) dispositions, and (7) improvement. The top 20 blended teaching skills include flexibility and personalization, mastery-based learning, data usage and interpretation, learning management system usage, online discussion facilitation, and software management. The authors recommend that researchers collect more methodologically transparent data about blended teaching and that teacher education programs include the identified skills in curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Blended learning
• online learning
• literature review
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emily Pulham

Emily Pulham is a PhD student at Brigham Young University, who studies K-12 blended learning, educational philosophy, and technology integration. She also consults faculty on blended teaching solutions. You can see some of her work at: emilypulham.com

Charles R. Graham

Charles R. Graham is a professor at Brigham Young University, who studies technology-mediated teaching and learning, with a focus on the design and evaluation of blended and online learning environments. He also researches the use of technology to enhance traditional teaching and learning. His current research publications can be found online at: https://sites.google.com/site/charlesrgraham/