The Effectiveness of a Blended PBL and Lecture Teaching Method on Mathematics Academic Achievement of First-Year Vocational College Students

To address the challenges of outdated teaching methods, low student interest, and inadequate practical application in higher mathematics teaching of vocational colleges, this study explored the effectiveness of a blended teaching method integrating Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and traditional lecture teaching. A quasi-experimental design was adopted, with 103 first-year students from two classes of the 2025 cohort in the College of Intelligent Manufacturing of Zhengzhou Vocational College of Business, Tourism and Trade as research objects. The experimental group (52 students) received the blended teaching method, while the control group (51 students) received traditional lecture-based instruction. The intervention lasted for 32 class hours (8 weeks, 4 hours per week). Data were collected through closed-book academic achievement tests and a mathematics learning interest scale (developed based on Hidi & Renninger's Four-Phase Model of Interest with verified reliability and validity). The tool used to compare the target teaching plan with three experts yielded an excellent score (4.55). The academic achievement test and interest survey scale, IOC, was evaluated by three experts to determine its content validity and the Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC). consistent with the defined criteria. According to the experts' evaluation, the IOC value obtained was 1.00. The Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.817 and a KMO value of 0.841, which is greater than 0. An independent-samples t-test showed that the experimental group achieved a significantly higher average score (69.14) than the control group (54.77) on the academic achievement test (t = -5.832, p = 0.000), with significant differences across sub-items, including single-choice, gap-filling, calculation, and application questions. Regarding learning interest, the pretest scores of the two groups showed no significant difference (p>0.05), but the posttest score of the experimental group (47.04) was significantly higher than that of the control group (40.10) (t=-3.710, p=0.000). The findings indicate that the blended teaching method of PBL and lecture is effective in improving vocational college students' higher mathematics academic achievement and learning interest, providing a practical reference for the reform of higher mathematics teaching in vocational colleges.