Teacher Perspectives on Blended Learning in a Changing Educational Landscape

Abstract

New technologies can be regarded as synonymous with future-oriented education. With technological advances being so characteristic of the twenty-first century, it is necessary to redesign and transform the way in which teaching and learning occur within the high school classroom. Technology, and especially new technologies, forms part of the overall frame of reference for today’s learners within the contextual framework of the twenty-first-century classroom. The ever-changing educational landscape urges the teacher to embrace an innovative disposition regarding teaching and learning and to explore ways in which technology can be integrated meaningfully with the curriculum framework. During the past year, the world has experienced enormous change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected education and, consequently, teachers, learners, parents and school management systems. This chapter focuses on the perspectives of language teachers on using blended learning approaches to teach the current twenty-first-century learner. Two core considerations guided this study. The first relates to the significant role that the teacher’s perspective plays in educational reform efforts, and the second entails blended learning as a teaching and learning strategy for language teaching. During blended learning, new technologies could be combined with the most valued features of traditional learning experiences to ultimately transform the language classroom in terms of the nature and quality of the educational experience.