Knowledge management in blended learning: Effects on professional development in creativity instruction

The purposes of this study were (1) to develop a teacher training program that integrates knowledge management (KM) and blended learning and examine its effects on pre-service teachers' professional development in creativity instruction; and (2) to explore the mechanisms underlying the success of such KM-based training. The employed KM model was the SECI, which consists of four modes of knowledge conversion: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Forty-four pre-service teachers participated in this 17-week experimental instructional program. Repeated Measure Analysis of Variance and content analysis revealed that the training program designed in this study effectively improved pre-service teachers' professional knowledge and personal teaching efficacy in their teaching of creativity. Moreover, this study showed that blended learning, guided practice, observational learning, group discussion, peer evaluation, and feedback are important mechanisms underlying this success.