Blended Learning Experience in Teacher Education: The Trainees' Perspective (original) (raw)
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The Effectiveness of Blended Learning in English Teacher Training
Journal of Teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes
This research paper presents a study that was carried out with future teachers of foreign languages from three different departments of Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University, Ukraine. The pandemic has had an impact on teaching. The education sector reacted quickly to this situation and implemented e-learning in institutional facilities. The course “Digital technologies in foreign languages teaching: theories, methods, application”, which is the subject of the study presented here, was implemented. In the conception of blended learning, the course provides future teachers with the necessary skills for the teaching practice of digital tools by learning to use these technologies in a didactically sensible way. The course concept provides a hybrid learning arrangement in which the effectiveness and flexibility of e-forms of learning are combined with the social aspects of face-to-face communication. The purpose of the study was to identify the effectiveness of th...
ReCALL, 2011
A key role in the successful implementation of any learning approach is played by teachers, so how well blended learning works will depend largely on how well teachers make the transition from their traditional face-to-face classroom roles to the wider more complex role that blended learning requires. The additional skills and the forging of a new professional identity might not come easily to all practitioners.This paper evaluates the impact that the introduction of blended learning in a distance language learning course has had on teachers. It presents and discusses findings from a small-scale evaluation study which compared quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a survey and a small number of interviews with participant observations from the researcher and the institutional end-of-course debriefing report.The paper argues that whilst technological challenges and the sheer amount of change that teachers were faced with were largely responsible for some of the negative ...
Blended learning: Investigating its potential in an English language teacher training program
Although the benefits of blended learning have been well documented in educational research, relatively few studies have examined blended learning in language teacher education. This study discusses a blended learning approach for a teacher training program designed for in-service English language teachers, and investigates its effectiveness by comparing with a face to face MA Program in English Language teaching. The research involved 39 in-service English language teachers, with 12 studying in a blended course (i.e., they received face to face instruction in the classroom and used web-based materials) and 27 in a traditional classroom. Results indicated that there was no difference in content knowledge acquisition between teachers receiving blended instruction and teachers receiving face to face instruction.
Pre-Service Language Teachers’ Reflections on the Implementation of a Blended-Learning Environment
Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 2014
The study investigated pre-service language teachers' reflections about a 20-week blended-learning environment. An online social presence training developed by Hauck and Warnecke (2012) was introduced to the face-to-face practicum course during the fall term and the pre-service teachers were immersed in an online learning environment where they can practice their newly acquired skills during the spring term. The course was also a combination of pedagogical and technical training as the pre-service teachers not only learned how to use different tools to participate online, but also experienced using them for teaching and learning purposes whilst constantly reflecting on their practice. The design of this study was a descriptive case study. 42 pre-service language teachers participated in this study during the fall semester and 25 during the spring semester of 2012-2013 academic year. Canvas was used as the learning management system in which the participants created audio/visual or written introductions and weekly discussions on the discussion board. The data collection included online forum participations and journal entries per participant at certain intervals throughout the course to obtain participants' ongoing reflections about the course. The results obtained from an analysis of the participants' journal and forum entries indicated that social presence training enhanced their awareness towards the active use of the online platform; however, the design of the task affected the level of motivation and communication among the preservice language teachers. The discussion emphasizes the significance of the interrelationship between task design and the maintenance of participation in a blended-learning environment.
The optimum blend: Affordances and challenges of blended learning for students.
Technology is changing paradigms in education rapidly and teachers are caught unguarded due to lack of professional training in this aspect. This study reflects the perceptions of nine ELT instructors with M.A TEFL degrees and with over six years of professional experience. Despite the lack of formal professional training as part of their pre-service teacher education, these instructors need to cope with the demands of this transition in daily implementation. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, open-ended questionnaires and field notes. An inductive analysis approach was used to analyze the data and emergent patterns of data were used to develop coding categories. Results indicated that respondents held positive views about the role of educational technology for enriching language instruction. However, they also acknowledged the challenges faced and emphasised the need for ICT training not only for teachers but also for students. It is concluded that participants make use of technology to teach academic and linguistic skills in an integrated skills approach, encourage students to construct knowledge, expose students to life-long learning skills and strategies, cater for different students who have different learning styles, find and create teaching materials, develop skills through exposure to existing on-line sources and create a motivating environment that is conducive for learning.
BLENDED LEARNING – A BOON OR BANE FOR TEACHER-LEARNER
The concept of liberalization, privatization and globalization in our country has opened up the boundaries to become a part of global village. Our country should bring out some changes in our traditional education system to provide the right content, in the right format, to the right people at the right time for quality and timely education. This can be achieved only when we transform our conventional education system as per the needs of society and economic status in the world. New innovations like the use of information and communication techniques (ICT) have made it imperative to adopt a new approach and Blended learning can be a key to success to meet global standards. It has been observed that at Lingaya's University, the use of this approach in the classrooms that require the physical co-presence of teacher and students has produced good results. The author tries to explore the possibilities of its use in our educational institutions discussing its pros as a boon and cons as a bane, justifying the title while adaptation into current conceptions, helps in engage students to attain academic success, combining online learning and face-to-face instruction effectively and ultimately throwing light on the uses of blended learning in the beginning and suggesting its expansion to ensure quality and accountability and socialization. Blended learning has become a buzzword and is in demand in corporate as well as academic fields and it is likely to emerge as the predominant model for the students in future.
The Role of the Teacher and the Blended-Learning Method
Képzés és gyakorlat
In our digital and globalized world it is beyond dispute that we, as teachers, need to renew ourselves both professionally and methodologically from time to time. According to Kristóf Nyíri (academic professional MTA) it is reflectedeven in 2018on the one hand that in the konwledge society lifelong learning (LLL) is compulsory and educating people besides working at the same time, and on the other hand the Internet is supposed to be the usual and natural way of everyday orientation and administration/communication (Nyíri, 2003). The teacher would like to join the new society of knowledge even during the lessons or outside of it as the interferer of science, art, languages etc. In the latest decades the role of teachers (at all levels of education) has been going on tremendous changes parallel with the institution of Hungarian education. The roles had to adjust to these changes and expectations. In my study I would like to highlight the role/s of teachers while using blended/mixed-learning method in-, and outside the classroom especially in university eductaion focusing on language teaching.
BLENDED TEACHING AS A PILLAR FOR ACHIEVING QUALITY IN EDUCATION IN THE NEW ERA
Teaching foreign languages in general and English in particular, in the time of technological development in the new context of the pandemic, requires that educators should keep hand in hand with the recent innovations and make use of the technological means either in the way of training teachers or in the ordinary classes for school and university learners. This is clearly noticed in online learning and distance learning as well as the intensive integration of Internet and technology in teaching and learning processes. The West has already experienced distance learning and considered it an alternative to face to face teaching methods. This proved to have lots of advantages and many scholars considered online teaching an alternative to the traditional methods. On another hand, many educators point out to the drawbacks of online education and considered the teaching learning process as a human activity that necessitates interaction within the context of human to human communication. Between these two views arose a third opinion calling for "blended teaching" as a compromise wherein teachers and learners interact in the real classroom context with a strong emphasis on the presence of technology in the educational process. "Blended teaching" is considered a style wherein technology should function complementarily with the teacher in order to provide high quality instruction and practice. The focal point of "Blended Teaching" is basically about the ability of relating online materials to real classes in order to make more effective teaching.
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2020
Although blended learning has long been recognized in the field of English language teaching, it is often claimed that it has not reached its optimal level of effectiveness in this area. This study aims to examine teachers' and students' perceptions of the design of blended learning in English language courses. The study participants consisted of five English teachers, each of whom had over a year of experience in teaching blended learning courses, and thirty-six students majoring in English. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with teacher participants and focus group interviews with student participants. The interviews were conducted using both face-to-face and phone conversations; each interview lasted about one hour. The focus group interviews were conducted with four to five student participants at a time, and each interview lasted about one hour. Conversations with both the teacher and student participants were conducted in their first language to allow for greater insight. The data from the interviews were transcribed and coded using Atlast.ti, and they were then analyzed using content analysis. To validate the results, the emergent themes were reviewed by the participants. The results revealed that both teachers and students were ready for this new form of language teaching. What is needed is teachers' professional training on how to design blended learning courses beyond the course management system level and how to raise and maintain students' motivation for online learning. Unsurprisingly, teachers are viewed as the main agents in enabling successful English language learning.