AGAINST THE ODDS: BLENDED LEARNING FOR TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teacher professional development is a challenge world-wide, and is even more so in developing countries. In response to increasing demands to expand a successful teacher education program, a private Graduate School of Education in Egypt decided to experiment with blended learning as modality to scale-up a quality program without increasing tuition, while enhancing accessibility and flexibility. Using action research as a methodology, the School engaged in a data-driven design experiment to test the viability of blended learning as an effective format for professional development. Using quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, design principles was created that aligned with best practices but also the specific success factors identified by stakeholders. Analysis of data confirmed the potential of blended learning for educational contexts new to online learning, but also revealed implications for future design iterations that are unique to a blended format for teacher professional development.