EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE MODES OF BLENDED LEARNING ON PRE-SERVICE MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ LEARNING OUTCOMES AMONG COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN NORTH- CENTRAL, NIGERIA

This study investigated the effectiveness of three blended learning models Rotational, Flex, and Enriched Virtual on the achievement, retention, and motivation of pre-service Mathematics teachers in Colleges of Education in North-Central Nigeria. Guided by six research questions and six corresponding null hypotheses, the study adopted a quasi- experimental pretest–posttest–retention control group design involving 940 participants purposively sampled from six accredited Colleges of Education. The treatment instruments consisted of custom-developed blended learning platforms built with Hyper Text Pre processor PHP, My strucured Query Language MySQL, Hyper Text markup Language HTML, and Cascading Style Sheets CSS, while data were collected using the Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT), Mathematics Retention Test (MRT), and Motivation Assessment Questionnaire (MAQ). Expert validation ensured content accuracy, instructional appropriateness, and platform usability, while reliability coefficients for MAT and MRT ranged from 0.88 to 0.91. ANCOVA and ANOVA were used for data analysis. Findings revealed significant differences among the instructional groups, with the Enriched Virtual Model producing the highest achievement (M = 46.55), retention (M = 44.58), and motivation (M = 3.83) scores. The Rotational and Flex Models also outperformed the conventional method. Retention decline was smallest in the Enriched Virtual Model (−1.97), demonstrating superior long-term learning. Gender differences across achievement, retention, and motivation were minimal and statistically insignificant, indicating that instructional method not gender was the primary determinant of learning outcomes. All hypotheses on group differences were rejected, while those on gender differences were retained. The study concludes that blended learning, particularly the Enriched Virtual Model, significantly enhances cognitive and affective learning outcomes in Algebra. It recommends broader adoption of blended learning models to strengthen mathematics instruction in teacher education programmes.