%0 Journal Article
%T Third Space: Blended Teaching and Learning
%A Debra Mayes Pane
%J Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology
%D 2009
%I Kent State University
%X This paper reports on a study that investigated how the blend of face-to-face and online instruction supports the development of Third Space in a content-area reading education course requiring field experiences with marginalized students. For this study, blended learning was defined as the combination of traditional and nontraditional face-to-face and authentic online learning activities to encourage student engagement and potentially transform student learning experiences and outcomes. Third Space is defined as a zone of transformation that is generated when teachers and students socialize together in and through language, integrating everyday and academic knowledge. A primary goal of the study was to provide Third Space content-area literacy learning opportunities for pre-service teachers through blended instruction that increased critically reflective interactions. In turn, pre-service teachers were to provide Third Space literacy learning opportunities with marginalized students in the field.This critical ethnographic study addressed the following central research question: How does a blend of face-to-face and online instruction support the development of Third Space in a content-area reading education course requiring field experiences with marginalized students? Subsidiary questions included: How did critically reflective interactions inform Third Space literacy learning opportunities provided for marginalized students in the field? What evidence of transformation in student learning experiences and outcomes was provided in final critical reflections? Data collected through ethnographic methods included observations, informal interviews, documents, and artifacts. Qualitative data were triangulated and thematically analyzed to answer the questions of the study. Findings indicate that blended teaching and learning that increased critically reflective interactions supported the development of Third Space teacher dispositions, praxis, and critical views of literacy.
%K Blended Learning
%K Third Space
%K Reading
%U http://www.rcetj.org/index.php/rcetj/article/view/19/24