Abstract :
This paper discusses the role of blended learning in teacher education on a
Master’s programme at Manchester University. Blended learning is the
bringing together of traditional physical classes with elements of virtual
education. The paper focuses on one particular module of the degree and
attempts to capture students’ experiences of using a number of online tools. As
our students are primarily in-service teachers, this experience is particularly
relevant and equips them to make use of educational technology in the
language classroom. Some comparisons are also made with a cohort of
teachers studying the programme at a distance. The paper explores a range of
issues that currently feature in the adult education literature, namely, deep and
surface learning, communities of practice, and the importance of educational
dialogue. The paper illustrates how important the blended nature of this
module is for the teachers to get a balanced programme that upgrades skills
and knowledge, but which also enables them to reflect on past and future
practice. A transformative education scale is used to show that teachers can
be transformed. The paper is a case study that makes use of data that explore
the student perspective on a series of research questions.
