WHY BLENDED LEARNING? CATERING FOR DIGITAL NATIVES IN CHINA'S UNIVERSITIES

Over the last decade, with the emerging market of digital natives, China’s universities recognized the power of technology and a vast sum of funds has been invested to set up technology-enhanced classrooms where teachers can apply the practice of blended learning, a learning environment integrating a combination of face-to-face and technology-based instruction. However, most of universities do not know why and how to integrate technology into pedagogical practice effectively and efficiently. This paper discusses the impact of technology-integrated teaching in improving learners’ higher-order thinking through learners’ relatedness fulfillment and deep learning. A quasi-experimental study has been done and a total of 170 undergraduate students enrolled in two courses in the university of South China participated in the study.

ANOVA analysis revealed that students who participated in the technology-intervened classroom show statistically significant in higher-order thinking skills than students who did not participate in the blended learning classroom. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed consequently.