Seton commissioned a two-year study by the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education on the impact of blended learning on social culture and relationships in our Catholic school partners. Our study asked these two questions: (1) How does BL impact student-teacher, teacher-teacher, and school-parent relationships? and (2) How does BL impact schools’ culture, values, and mission?
Research has found social capital to be one of Catholic schooling’s rich value-adds—and we wanted to see if an increased focus on personalized academic instruction might adversely impact social culture and relationships—one of the things that make Catholic schools great. St. Anne School in Los Angeles and DePaul Catholic School in Philadelphia were the test cases. The good news is that social culture is either not impacted or is positively impacted with blended learning.
Two findings of special note:
- Seton’s model helps to academically focus teacher-teacher and teacher-student relationships.
- Seton’s model engages students through competition, improved self-efficacy, interesting programs, and teacher support.