Experts were interviewed to identify teacher attributes relevant for blended learning implementation in higher education. Adaptive attributes included student-centered educational beliefs, openness to communicate and experiment with technology, and pedagogical creativity. Maladaptive attributes were an unclear concept of blended learning, believing teaching is less important than other tasks, and anxiety around technology. The relationship between beliefs and attitudes was found to be important, with beliefs at the core of adaptation. Addressing beliefs in professional development and providing support for experimentation were implications for facilitating uptake of blended learning.

1. Experts' insights about blended
learning implementation: What
teacher attributes are relevant?
ECEL 18th European Conference on e-Learning
7-8 November 2019
Copenhagen, Denmark
Bram Bruggeman – Jo Tondeur
Katrien Struyven – Bram Pynoo

2. Context
• 3 year project
• practice and research
• Implementation and application
of blended learning at Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
• Pilots in different faculties
Image source

3. Blended
Learning
• Highly valued and much implemented
• Implementation = challenging process, barriers
• Variety of (f)actors influence
(e.g.Hang, Wang, & Jiang, 2019)
Educational
change
(Fullan & Hargreaves, 1992;
Guskey, 2002)
Teacher

4. Clear concept of BL
The deliberate combination of
online and classroom-based
instruction that activates and
supports learning.
(Boelens, Van Laer, De Wever, & Elen, 2015;
Hrastinski, 2019)
Various research foci
• Student perspectives
• Context, organisation
• Design
• Teacher perspective
o e.g. Educational beliefs
(Tondeur, van Braak, Ertmer, &
Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2017)

5. Focus on the teacher perspective:
Clarity in degrees of acceptance? What plays a role?
Attributes:
• Knowledge?
• Skills?
• Attitudes?
• Beliefs?
• Competences?
• Emotion?
• Motivation?
Embedded in context

6. Qualitative: Expert interviews (n=12)
(Bogner & Menz, 2009; Van Audenhove & Donders, 2019)
 Better at selecting relevant details from large sets of information
 Spend more time analyzing problems qualitatively.
 Experts are oriented towards professional practice and take
more complex variables into account.
 Experts produce more logical and appropriate solutions than novices.
 Experts transfer knowledge more easily to other domains.
 Experts learn more from intuition, feeling and soft skills.
What teacher attributes are relevant
when implementing BL in higher education?
What adaptive teacher attributes do experts describe as relevant for the uptake of BL?
What maladaptive attributes do experts describe as hindering for the uptake of BL?
Methodology - research questions

7. Findings: two sides of the same coin
Adaptive & maladaptive teacher attributes

8. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Education is priority (n=10)
“Being convinced that pedagogy is
important, seeing education as an
important part of the job, that’s
what matters.”
Being concerned with university
teaching quality.

9. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
“And also wanting to coach students.
Coaching more, guiding more, that is
actually the most important drive I
notice among teachers to do blended
learning.”
Student-centred belief (n=7)
Education is priority
Believing that students’ voices are
important.

10. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Realizing need
for change (n=10)
Attitudes
“Through student feedback, I realized
that I’d lost my students somehow
and I wanted to change that.”
Being aware of a triggering event that
activates implementation process.
Student-centred belief
Education is priority

11. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Realizing need
for change
Attitudes
“We think it is very good when people
come to us and dare to say ‘I have this or
that issue, and I want a solution’.”
“Communicating and knowing from each
other what happens, is crucial.”
Having an open attitude to dare talk
about practice.
Openness & willingness
to communicate (n=8)
Student-centred belief
Education is priority

12. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Student-centred belief
Education is priority
Realizing need
for change
Attitudes
“A fascination with the affordances of
technology and the willingness to
explore and experiment with it.”
“It is about allowing risks with technology.”
Willingness to investigate and
experiment with technology.
Openness & willingness
to communicateDaring to experiment
(n=9)

13. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Student-centred belief
Education is priority
Realizing need
for change
Attitudes
Openness & willingness
to communicateDaring to experiment
Pedagogical creativity
blended learning & ICT
(n=11) Competences
Capacity to connect technology and
learning processes, in function of BL
“Teachers address the challenge of 'how can I
use those shiny or non-shiny tools - because
sometimes those tools can work on your nerves
- to enhance the learning process?”
“With a kind of ‘love for learning’.”

14. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Student-centred belief
Education is priority
Realizing need
for change
Attitudes
Openness & willingness
to communicateDaring to experiment
Pedagogical creativity
blended learning & ICT
Competences
Capacity to reflect critically on the
teaching practice.
"Teachers are able to ask themselves 'why do I react
this way, what is my pedagogical intention here?'. There
is a kind of pedagogical reasoning aspect involved."
“Those teachers have a good understanding of what is
good education, what is good teaching, and what does
that mean for students?”
Critical reflection
on teaching practice (n=9)

15. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Attitudes
Competences
Student-centred belief
Education is priority
Openness & willingness
to communicate
Pedagogical creativity
blended learning & ICT
Realizing need
for change
Daring to experiment
Critical reflection
on teaching practice

16. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Education is not priority (n=5)
Teaching is less ‘active’ (n=5)
“Some think teaching is just a waste of
time, something that you unfortunately
do between the soup and the fries.”
Prioritizing projects, research over
pedagogy. Teaching is rather ‘distributing
knowledge.

17. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Education is not priority
Teaching is less ‘active’
“Because yes, that's also true, a wrong
perception that I hear a lot: people think
that blended learning is about integrating
as many ICT tools as possible.”
Insufficient knowledge and insights on
the pedagogical concept of blended
learning.
Unclear concept BL (n=10)

18. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Education is not priority
Teaching is less ‘active’
“Teachers say "Yes, okay, then we have to
teach less and then we have more time to
work on projects.” “Oh, then you come and
film my lectures?”
Invalid logic reasoning on blended learning,
decision making based on own assumptions
and beliefs
Unclear concept BL
Belief bias (n=11)

19. Adaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Education is not priority
Teaching is less ‘active’
Unclear concept BL
Belief bias
Anxiety (n=8)
General anxiety towards BL, failing with
technology, feelings of uncertainty,
perfectionistic, fear of failing.
“That they do not want weblectures to be placed
somewhere on a medium that they do not know
how long it will stay on. That’s a kind of anxiety,
fear of what will be put online.”

20. Maladaptive teacher attributes
Beliefs
Unclear concept BL
Belief bias
Education is not a priority
Anxiety

21. Conclusion: two sides of the same coin,
educational beliefs at the core
Adaptive:
• Student-centred educational beliefs
• Growth-oriented attitudes
• Critical teacher reflection and pedagogical creativity
with technology
Maladaptive:
• Attaching less importance to teaching, no priority
• Having an unclear concept of blended learning, and
active belief bias
• Anxiety towards technology and blended learning

22. Discussion section
• Relationship between two sides of the coin present,
but more investigation needed
• Link with intrinsic motivation
• In line with ‘challenge motivation’ (Lai, Hsiao, & Hsieh,
2018) and innovative competences (Zhu, Wang, Cai, &
Engels, 2014). Esp. learning, educational &
technological competency.
• Relationship to, influence of context, culture (social
competence)?
• Experts not “first-hand” information. Triangulation?

23. What’s next? Implications
 Address educational beliefs in TPD
 Pay attention to ‘pedagogical triggers for change’ (awareness)
 Stimulate experimenting with technology and
provide support (avoid fear of failing).
 Organize team discussions on the value of
blended learning
 Be aware of ‘belief bias’
What’s next?
Finalizing results and discussion section
and preparing for submission

24. Question:
Relationship beliefs - attitudes:
Include or exclude in results section?
Thank you!
bram.bruggeman@vub.be @brambruggeman
jo.tondeur@vub.be @jotondeur
katrien.struyven@uhasselt.be @KStruyven
bram.pynoo@vub.be @bpynoo

25. References
Boelens, R., Van Laer, S., De Wever, B., & Elen, J. (2015). Blended learning in adult
education: Towards a definition of blended learning.
Bogner, A., & Menz, W. (2009). The theory-generating expert interview: Epistemological
interest, forms of knowledge, interaction. In Interviewing experts (pp. 43–80). Springer.
Fullan, M., & Hargreaves, A. (Red.). (1992). Teacher development and educational
change. London ; Washington, D.C: Falmer Press.
Graham, C. R., Woodfield, W., & Harrison, J. B. (2013). A framework for institutional
adoption and implementation of blended learning in higher education. The Internet and
Higher Education, 18, 4–14.
Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional development and teacher change. Teachers and
teaching, 8(3), 381–391.
Han, X., Wang, Y., & Jiang, L. (2019). Towards a framework for an institution-wide
quantitative assessment of teachers’ online participation in blended learning
implementation. The Internet and Higher Education, 42, 1–12.
Hrastinski, S. (2019). What Do We Mean by Blended Learning? TechTrends, 1–6.
Images: https://pixabay.com/

26. References
Lai, H.-M., Hsiao, Y.-L., & Hsieh, P.-J. (2018). The role of motivation, ability, and
opportunity in university teachers’ continuance use intention for flipped teaching.
Computers & Education, 124, 37–50.
Tondeur, J., van Braak, J., Ertmer, P. A., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2017). Understanding
the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education:
A systematic review of qualitative evidence. Educational Technology Research and
Development.
Van Audenhove, L., & Donders, K. (2019). Expert interviews and elite interviews. In H.
Van den Bulck, M. Puppis, K. Donders, & L. Van Audenhove (Eds). Handbook of Media
Policy Methods (pp. 179–197). London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Zhu, C., Wang, D., Cai, Y., & Engels, N. (2013). What core competencies are related to
teachers’ innovative teaching? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 41(1), 9–27.

27. Extra: Data analysis / trustworthiness
• Categories emerged from first analyses
• Researcher X coded parallel & independently (n=3)
 insufficient interrater reliability
• Refinement and discussion of codebook
• Researcher Y coded with finalized codebook (n=4)
 interrater reliability of 98% (influenced by very
large transcripts)

28. Experta Background Role
Marc PhD Educational Sciences and Innovation Educational advisor and designer, project leader
Luke MSc Educational Sciences Curriculum and instructional designer, policymaker
and implementer of educational technology
Finn MSc Communication Sciences Advisor technology enhanced teaching and learning
Frasier MSc Psychology and Educational Sciences Director teacher training institute
William MSc Educational Sciences, E-learning Head of research on educational innovation
Charlotte PhD Educational Sciences Professor in e-learning design and educational
technology
Alice PhD Educational Instructional Technology Associate lecturer and researcher in educational
technology
Ferguson Higher professional education Technology
enhanced learning
Project leader E-learning in higher education
Agatha PhD Educational Sciences Researcher in instructional psychology and
technology
Grace PhD Educational Sciences Project leader educational technology
Travis MSc Computer Engineering + certificate
Educational Technology
Educational advisor blended learning