Abstract:

Most of today's pupils and students have access to an virtual online classroom in addition to their physical one. We refer to the combination of the two as the blended classroom and the teaching that then takes places as blended teaching. The two classrooms have different characteristics that teachers can utilize for different purposes. A well-balanced blend will provide both teachers and students with great opportunities to experience visible teaching and visible learning.

Look into any classroom and you will quickly discover how differently students learn and how differently they master the classroom context. Some students are very independent and need very little instruction in order to understand what they should do when they are given tasks by the teacher and once they have completed them. Other students need very concrete instructions and in time feedback in order to understand where they are in their learning, where they should go and how to get there. A look into the classroom will also reveal how confident some students are and how insecure others can be.

For a long time, education researchers have been pointing out important and necessary changes that need to be made in order to raise student achievement in schools. These recommendations can appear to be obvious. However, they also demand a lot of work from the teachers if they are to be put into practice. The technology companies such as Apple has changed the way people experience music. In the same way, the important change in education may come from unexpected “experts”. Different types of online technology are emerging in schools and presentations at conferences around the world show that innovative teachers are experimenting with new practices in order to meet the high expectations demanded of them.

The participants in this session will hopefully gain insight in what will happen if the teachers plan the activities for a blended classroom in such way that the best characteristics from both of the classrooms are utilized.

Keywords:

Blended teaching, Blended learning, Blended classroom, Visible learning, Visible teaching.