Title: Employing transformational leadership in the blended learning classroom to impact learning outcomes in community-based post-secondary institutions

Author: Peter J. McAliney, Ph.D. candidate, New York University - Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

Descriptors: Teaching and Learning, technology, business education, leadership

Objectives or purposes: The economic health of large, urban areas depends on the quality of the workforce, which is a direct outcome of the quality of the workforce’s educations.  In order to keep pace with the change in the business environment required as a result of globalization and advances in technology, education systems need to provide well-trained, skilled workers. This has direct implications for the training and education that post-secondary organizations need to provide their work force. 

A learning delivery tool that is emerging, but is not yet fully understood, is blended learning.  It is suggested that successful delivery of blended learning solutions rely upon the integration of the appropriate use of technology, the role an instructor plays, and the learner’s cognitive and affective state.Post-secondary institutions need to be able to provide the work force the skills to meet the demands of a newly emerging global marketplace. An approach that has emerged to deliver this education is blended learning, a combination of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technology - either asynchronous or synchronous - and face to face classroom learning.  One of the key factors in the delivery of blended learning is the role that the instructor plays.  A better understanding of an instructor’s actions in this blended learning environment is needed to help understand how opportunities can be created to facilitate transformational learning experiences for students.  This can provide direction for an academic institution looking to increase use of this delivery platform for student learning.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: A review of the literature around the three elements (i.e., technology, instructor, and student) uncovers theoretical support for successful implementation of blended learning solutions.  First, limitations in Transactional Distance theory (Moore, 1989), often used to describe how technology is applied in distance learning, are overcome by the face to face component in blended learning.  Second, the instructor’s role can be viewed through the theoretical lens of Transformational Leadership theory (Avolio & Bass, 1991), whereby a transformational instructor can contribute to a successful blended learning implementation.  Third, building upon the premise that adult education is based on self-direction and that the purpose of learning is to enable one to understand the meaning of experiences, Transformative Learning theory (Mezirow, 1978) suggests that individual transformation changing one’s frame of reference, leads one to undertake a journey of reflection to realign one’s frame of reference, and reorients one self’s approach to the world with this new frame of reference.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry: The research will be conducted as a qualitative, case study. The researcher will make primary use of observations, supplemented by surveys and interviews. Before the study, instructors who exhibit a transformational leadership style will be identified. Participants will fill out surveys that identify demographic variables, experience-related information, and course expectations.  The researcher, as observer, will observe teaching strategies employed by instructor, interactions between instructor and students, and interactions between students and students.  Specific to the asynchronous dimension, the researcher will observe frequency of instructor postings, frequency of student postings, student learning log entries, and other relevant exchanges that occur in the online discussion threads.  Upon completion, survey instruments and/or focus groups will be administered to students to investigate the presence or absence of a transformative learning experience within the class.

Data sources or evidence: Meaning making will be developed through the deep analysis of artifacts including manuscripts, interviews, focus groups, transcripts from discussion threads of asynchronous conversations, observations, and other observed interactions that occur in the classroom and in the online environment.  A coding system will be employed to lift insights from the artifacts and will be used as the basis to develop the high level themes surrounding what processes a transformational leader employs to invoke transformative learning experiences from students in the blended learning environment.

Results and/or conclusions/point of view: This is an ongoing qualitative study and interim results as of spring, 2008 will be presented for discussion. 

Educational or scientific importance of the study: Blended learning offers hope in bridging the access divide from three major perspectives.  First, blended learning is a cost effective delivery mode that offers less wealthy areas the same opportunities to deliver educational solutions that they may not have been able to afford in the past.  Second, initial research is showing that blended learning offers learning outcomes greater than face to face and distance learning-only educational delivery modes.  Third, blended learning opens up access to talented, non-traditional instructors from the business community who can contribute their experiences to a learner population who they otherwise would have not easily been able to reach.  Through a less limited time commitment and geographic autonomy, their talents can be utilized in ways that have never before been realized.  The outcomes of model programs can be used to increase the viability of public-private partnerships that employ a proactive approach that brings the business community into urban communities who in the past may have been marginalized.

References

Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. (1991). The full range of leadership development: Basic and advanced manuals. Binghampton, NY: Bass, Avolio, and Associates.

Mezirow, J. (1978). Education for perspective transformation: Women's re-entry programs in community colleges. New York: NY: Columbia University Press.

Moore, M. G. (1989). Three types of interaction. The American Journal of Distance Education, 3, 1-6.