Title: Teachers' perceived roles and their constructivist engagement practices in blended learning environment courses in Tanzanian universities

Authors: Haruni Machumu; Chang Zhu

Addresses: Department of Education and Teaching Management, Mzumbe University, P.O. Box 5, Mzumbe, Morogoro, Tanzania ' Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between teachers' perceived roles and their constructivist engagement practices in constructivist-based blended learning environment (BLE) courses in Tanzanian universities. The study used a mixed-methods research design with multiple data collection techniques to collect data from 261 teachers across ten selected universities. Step-by-step statistical analyses and content analysis were used. The results show that teachers' main perceived role is one of support, followed by leadership and design roles in constructivist-based BLE courses. The results also suggest that collaboration was a preferable mode of engagement to motivation or facilitation in terms of teachers' constructivist engagement practices in constructivist-based BLE courses. The findings further reveal that there is a statistically significant correlation between teachers' perceived roles and constructivist engagement practices in constructivist-based BLE courses. The results advance the knowledge base regarding teachers' perceived roles, teachers' constructivist engagement practices and constructivist-based blended learning. Furthermore, the results could be beneficial to higher education institutions (HEIs) attempting to implement constructivist-based BLE courses, demonstrating that the deployment and implementation of constructivist-based BLE courses in teacher education should align with teachers' perceived roles and their constructivist engagement practices.

Keywords: perceived roles; constructivist learning; engagement practices; teachers; blended learning courses; blended learning environments; BLE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLT.2019.101846

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2019 Vol.14 No.2, pp.102 - 124

Published online: 28 Aug 2019 *

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