Faculty perception1

Faculty Perception of Blended Language

Learning in the Thai tertiary context

Thitirat Suwannasom

Faculty of Humanities

Naresuan University

Phitsanulok, Thailand

Blended Learning•Blended learning is nothing more than employing

a variety of media and methods, most often a mix of online and face-to-face learning.

• The combination is subject to a range of permutations in technologies and contexts (Gramham, 2006; Garrison & Vaughan, 2008)

•Applications and practices of blended learning vary widely & customized to suit different needs of individuals and institutions.

Blended learning: a mid-point of a continuum in the use of technology in teaching and learning that begins

with f2f instruction and ends with totally online.

Face-to-Face

OnlineBlended Learning

Teacher’s Roles and Skills• Students need particular support and strategies in the

new learning environment in which learner-centeredness is vital.

• An ‘information-giver’ to one of ‘designer’ and ‘director’ of instruction

• serve as models for lifelong learning as both students and teachers learn to master the new technologies to acquire knowledge

• influence students’ learning as well as the development of problem-solving and critical thinking skills & learning to take rights and responsibilities in their own learning

• Teachers should be able to have both content expertise and online communicative skills to support learners’ knowledge construction

Research Questions

1. What are teachers’ perceived roles in the blended learning environments?

2. What skills do teachers believe are necessary for teaching in a blended learning environment?

3. What are challenges of blended learning instruction in their classrooms?

Blended Learning Environment

• Fundamental English and Developmental English (General Education Courses) in 2012

• Blended Design (50% face-to-face instruction/ self-access learning & group projects 50%)

• Social Networking/ Email/ Chat communication between teachers and students, among students

• 4500 students / 58 teachers & teacher assistants

Methodology

•Survey Questionnaire: Teacher Roles and Skills / Challenges in blended learning instruction (Google Form)

•Semi-Structure with 5 volunteer participants

•Quantitative data + Qualitative data

Question 1: Teacher Roles in Blended Learning• a. The process facilitator (e.g. using CMC tools to foster interaction with and between students).

• b. The advisor-counsellor (e.g. providing individual consultation by e-mail/ txt).

• c. The assessor (e.g. providing feedback via CMC).

• d. The researcher (e.g. locating resources needed for academic disciplines).

• e. The content facilitator (e.g. providing content and resources available on the web).

• f. The technologist (e.g. giving instructions/ creating/using online tools or LMS).

• g. The designer (e.g. creating and sequencing learning activities and tasks).

• h. The manager-administrator (e.g. maintaining an archive of electronic assignment and students’ records).

Findings 1• Figure 1 Teachers’ perceived roles in blended learning

environment

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7580

84 87

97

80 79

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Teacher Roles

Teachers’ Comments on Roles

• “Giving them something that they can understand a bit but need to search for more challenging but possible to achieve. Students should be given opportunities to gain more information that are useful for their academic performance and future career.”

• “The tasks we assign student to do online should be well-planned because students might have different level of comprehension of the topic. It could not be generalized that all topics can be done through a blended learning environment such as cooking demonstrations and role playing.”

Question 2: Online Teacher Pyramid Skills

Figure 1: Skills Pyramid (Hampel & Stickler, 2005)

Findings 2• Figure 2 Teachers’ perceived essential skills in blended

learning environment

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91

8079

81

Teacher Skills

Teachers’ Comments on essential skills

• “For many student, it is more convenient and comfortable to ask questions by posting comments or sending chat messages rather than giving a call or talk in person”

• “With large classes, it's impossible to give individual feedback to each student. But it's a good idea to communicate with students outside classroom where students might feel freer to ask questions”

Finding 3: Challenges in BL instruction

1.Technological Issues

- the quality of Internet connection

- no connection at home for student

2. Teachers’ skills

- need more training of e-learning & online instructional tools

- the ICT-based lesson requires a lot of time planning and construction

3. Students’ motivation

- students’ abilities to comprehend the online instruction

- engage students in doing online exercises.

- spend more time to make sure that students understand the instruction

Discussion & Conclusion• The result revealed that the most essential roles for teachers

are being a ‘facilitator’ of content as well as a researcher and the manager-administrator. This can be explained by the contextual factors reflected in participating teachers’ interviews.

• The most important role is to make students realize that online technology is a part of their learning no matter what subjects they are studying. Hence, it is teachers’ responsibility to guide them to the right source of academic content and materials that are abundantly available online.

• Therefore, blended learning requires additional searching skills, online interaction and would then inevitably needs teachers’ guidance, students’ cooperation, and flexibility in teaching & learning.

Discussion & Conclusion• The most important skills: online communication skill.

• different from the hierarchical pyramid skills of online teachers (Hample and Stickler 2005). Some teachers do not need to acquire foundation skills such as specific competence of computer software or knowing how to fix technical problems in the learning system to be an “inspired” blended language learning teacher.

• More online communicative tools available for teachers and students to use

• Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) tools ‘filling the gap’ or being the ‘bridge’ that connect between teachers in the real world and teachers in the virtual world.

Recommendations• BL support language learning of the current trend of

using technology in daily lives.

• Potential of ICT to enhance F2F instruction maximize learning experience outcome

• How teachers use the tools is crucial for the change of language instruction in any kind of learning environment.

• It is the teachers who need to know how to adjust their instruction to answer the need of their students and how to equip students with the right tools and skills for their life-long learning.

Thank You for your attention

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