CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THEORIES OF BLENDED LEARNING

Theories of Blended Learning

Blended learning is one of the contemporary day strategies of teaching in education that lends itself to the constructivist, conversation and educational productivity theories. Constructivism theory has root in the work of Dewey (1929), Bruner (1961), Vygostky (1962) and Piaget (1980). The theory as one of the learning theories focuses on how people construct their learning and make meaning of it in relation to the interaction between their experiences and ideas. The term construction relates to the idea that each learner generates meanings for themselves as they learn, both individually and socially (Bada&Olusegun, 2015). According to constructivism theory, teaching shifts from emphasizing external factors to internal factors that affect learning, such as the learner’s prior knowledge, their capacity for remembering and processing information, and their motivation to learn, all of which contribute to the meaningfulness of learning (Qarareh, 2016).

A theory called constructivism is based on research into how individuals learn from observation and science. To put it another way, it has to do with how humans gain knowledge and awareness of the world via observation and reflection of events. One must accept the past when confronted with something new, experience and ideas either changing what is believed or rejecting the new information as immaterial. Be it as it may, people spirited originator of their own mastery that is question most be post explore and evaluated in the process. The constructivists are of the view that the teacher should focus on helping students to restate their question in useful way. Instead of giving students answer to the question, the teacher should encourage students to reflect and examine the current knowledge and come up with relevant concept. The teacher will now focus on it and indicate that this can be fruitful area to explore. The teacher and students should design relevant experiments after which they should discuss what they have learned together on how their observation and the experiment helped them or otherwise to better their understanding of the concept. Constructivism does regard and appreciates the role of the teacher who is an expert in his field as against the view of the conservatives. This is practically demonstrated in blended learning which does not only adopted e-learning where students explore the internet but also makes use of teachers for instruction and interaction. The constructivist adjusted the value of expert knowledge to that of supplying resources like problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities so that students can build and test their ideas, draw conclusions, make inferences, pool their knowledge, and communicate it in a collaborative learning environment which is better than reproducing a series of facts as done in conservatives. As opposed to being passive absorbers of knowledge, students become active participants in the process of learning and with the help of the teacher discussions are brought to a logical conclusion.

However, conversation theory of Gordon Pask (1966; 1996) is a theory of construction and communication which centers upon understanding of what

when there is efficient communication, the process of getting to know where learner in a discussion could be opined to comprehend and grasp knowledge passed to him or her (Scott, 2001). Pask’s conversation theory has two components namely; why learning and how learning. Furthermore, educational productivity proposed by Walberg’s (1981) theory is one of the few empirically tested theories on students’ outcome. Walberg found 8 variables comprising of students’ achievements. The 8 variables are represented in motivation, ability, quantity of instruction, quality of instruction, age developmental level, peer group, home environment, classroom climate, as well as exposure to external media to the school (McGrew, 2007). Hence, these three theories will be used in this research work as it best justifies the call for blended learning in today’s pedagogy.

Theoretical Model of Blended Learning

This study employs four theories namely; constructivism, conversation, educational productivity theory and Maslow theory of motivation theory. These three theories namely; constructivism, conversation, and educational productivity theories are theoretically formed in line with the research hypotheses and questions as presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1:Theoretical Model of the Research Objective

The research proposes that, blended learning will have impact on Social Studies learner’s academic performance, his /her retention and motivation to learning.

Figure 2 Conceptual hypothesized research framework.

Figure 2: Conceptual Hypothesized Research Framework

The research proposes that, blended learning represented by online learning (using PowerPoint presentation, video, Whatsapp, Facebook …etc) and face-to- face learning (Classroom Lecture Presentation) will have impact on Social Studies learner’s Motivation, Retention and Academic Performance to learning.

This model is built on four theories namely; constructivist theory of Dewey (1929), Bruner (1961) and Piaget (1980), the conversation theory of Pask (1966; 1996), educational productivity theory of Walberg (1981), and Motivation theory of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs from which all the variables in the research conceptual framework were derived.

Review Questions

Attempt the following questions:

1. Identify and discuss any two theories relevant to blended teaching and learning instruction.

2. Develop a model suitable for blended learning instruction in social studies classroom.