In recent years, blended learning (BL) has grown to occupy an important space in Chinese educational practice. Policymakers have developed many application strategies and platforms and are continuing to develop BL for future use. In order to apply BL in practice, key stakeholders have been using different learning management systems (LMSs), digital platforms, games, hybrid courses, and various forms of social media to create a framework for BL. This study asserts that many visible opportunities have emerged in Chinese higher education through the applications of BL. The advantages of BL are that it fosters stronger academic achievement, student engagement, and cognitive engagement and understanding as well as flexible and quick communication skills, faster interaction skills, technical skills, and adaptability to ever-changing educational practices. On the other hand, BL has brought about some pedagogical and technical difficulties for both learners and practitioners. This study found that most BL courses are not as effective as they could be because they do not have a strong pedagogical framework. Moreover, BL suffers from the technical incompetence of teachers and students, the inefficiency of LMSs, and the unavailability of required resources, such as certain devices and the Internet. Some higher education institutions have become pioneers in Chinese educational practice and been able to successfully adopt BL frameworks and integrate Moodle as well as other platforms and techniques. However, many other institutions’ attempts to adopt BL approaches have not been as effective. In order to better understand how and in what ways BL is being integrated into the educational system, this study overviews the current situation and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of BL in Chinese higher education.

Purpose of the study: The aim of this article was to investigate how the unintended side effects of standardized testing cause teachers not to integrate 21st century skills i.e., communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, into science classes. In addition, this study also cross-examineed if certain features of standardized testing have any beneficial impact on the adoption of 21st century skills in science teaching. Methodology: This paper followed the method of narrative review. 85 papers were initially selected after the primary searches. Finally, 30 papers were used to answer two research questions in this article. Main Findings: After analyzing the selected papers, this narrative review revealed three unintended outcomes of standardized testing on the practice of 21st century skills, which are: teachers often prioritize testing over teaching, which results in the fact that there is not enough time for innovative instruction, and the time spent on the actual content of the curriculum is often shortened. On the other hand, the review also found that standardized tests can motivate teachers and enable them to offer their students new opportunities to incorporate 21st century skills into science education by following Assessment guidelines and expanding curricular opportunities.  Novelty/Originality of this study: This study revealed how standardized test-based education practices in science teaching can be analyzed and customized to create a space for cultivating 21st century skills for students.

Globally, fewer students are choosing careers in science. In developing countries like Bangladesh, this attrition is often attributed to limited access to laboratories, lack of qualified science teachers, and limited use of student-centered strategies (SCS). Educators are attempting to design professional development programs to empower teachers with innovative teaching methods that will eventually boost enrolment in STEM-related fields. With this end in mind, we designed a six-month-long grant-funded project that equipped five urban schools in Bangladesh with 20 science toolkits. We also provided 20 science teachers and five site coordinators with ongoing professional development to support use of these toolkits with 109 students for inquiry-based learning (IBL). Using an explanatory sequential design, we analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from three surveys. We also used transcripts from interviews with five site coordinators and four Zoom panel presentations to understand the numeric findings. While quantitative analysis with SPSS revealed that teacher-centered strategies (TCS) continue to be widespread in Bangladesh, we noted that the IBL project influenced student outcomes in several ways. The qualitative data confirmed that teachers who receive training and support over an extended period implemented SCS quite effectively. Both quantitative and qualitative findings revealed that a shift from TCS to SCS enhanced students' ability to hypothesize, experiment, and make real-life connections. In this paper, we describe statistically significant differences in the students’ knowledge across curriculum type and gender. We also describe the influence of the project on student attitudes.