Empowering teachers' professional development with LLMs: An empirical study of developing teachers' competency for instructional design in blended learning

Abstract

The issue of supporting teachers' professional development has been a significant focus in applied research related to large language models. The research group developed a blended teachers' professional development program, empowering teachers' professional development of instructional design competency in blended learning with a large language model, and conducted an empirical study at a university in northwest China. Utilising a focus group interview (n = 23) and quantitative analysis, we established that the program enabled targeted training, offered teachers a personalized learning experience, and eventually improved their competency in instructional design for blended learning. The large language model effectively empowered teachers' professional development.