A phenomenographic study on Singapore primary school Chinese teachers' perception of their blended learning experiences

This research investigated Singapore Primary School Chinese teachers’ differing perceptions towards blended learning and its implication on teachers’ professional development for blended learning. The research employed a phenomenographic research methodology, incorporating a research subject selection questionnaire and semistructured interview to gather data from a diverse sample of teachers teaching in four different Singapore Primary Schools. Data were then sorted according to the factors outlined in the TPAM model.

TPAM is a model that engaged Davis’ (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a foundation to inspect teachers’ perceptions towards blended learning. Within TAM, the factors identified were external variables, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes towards using, behavioural intention of use and actual use of the system. The TPAM adapted all these variables and added internal variables as an additional variable. This is because teaching practice often consists of teachers’ subjective reality. Also, TPAM extracted external variables and internal variables to become overarching variables as teaching practice revolved various key stakeholders and is not limited to teachers’ individual selves and teachers’ internal thought processes.

Findings revealed three different categories of teachers and these three categories of teachers showed a hierarchical relationship in terms of their experience of blended learning, in relation to the factors outlined in the (TPAM). It is notable that the hierarchical relationship within each factor is defined independently due to the nature of the various factors.

Additionally, this research also found that the factors within the TPAM were not linearly related. Instead, this research proposed a tiered categorisation of factors. Three tiers of factors that impacted teachers’ implementation of blended learning were delineated. Tier-One factors include teachers’ external variables, internal variables and attitudes towards using blended learning. Tier-Two factors include teachers’ perceived usefulness of blended learning and their implementation intent of blended learning. Tier-Three factors include teachers’ perceived ease of using blended learning. Tier-one factors are factors that have a direct impact on the actual implementation of blended learning and an indirect impact through mediation on three or more other factors. Tier-two factors are factors that have a direct impact through mediation on the actual implementation of blended learning and an indirect impact on two or fewer other factors. Tier three factors are factors that only indirectly impact the actual implementation of blended learning. These factors were consistent with TPAM and provided the basis for the identification of threshold concepts.

The differing understanding of Tier One factors experienced by the three categories of teachers provided a basis for the preliminary identification of threshold concepts. However, further inspection and validation are needed to create a tangible professional development package to address identified threshold concepts.