Blended Learning in the Vocational Education and Training System in Tanzania: Understanding Vocational Educators’ Perceptions

Abstract

In a constructivist world of teaching and learning, opportunities to acquire and develop the knowledge and practical skills necessary to design, establish, and deploy blended learning in vocational education and training (VET) programs delivery is a labour-market-driven. The paper examines VET educator"s pleas about the need for the design, adoption and deployment of blended learning in VET programs delivery in Tanzania. A single case study design with an in-depth interview and focus group discussion was conducted with 15 VET educators in three VET colleges in both Morogoro and Dar es Salaam regions. Snowball and purposive sampling were used to obtain sample respondents. For the data analysis, content analysis was employed to condense data obtained from interviews and focus group discussion. It was found that continuous professional development, institutional arrangements, and support should be provided online to facilitate the design, adoption and use of blended learning in VET. We recommend that locally designed blended learning should be relevant to the environment of both students and teachers. In reality, the interplay between blended learning, imparting knowledge and practical skills remain the key focus of future research.

Blended Learning as Instructional Model in Vocational Education: Literature Review

“…The results obtained are considered that Blended learning is an activity that takes place in two different areas, namely in person and online. Locally designed mixed learning should fit the environment for both teachers and students [30].…”

Influence of School Culture and Classroom Environment in Improving Soft Skills amongst Secondary Schoolers

“…The study showed that T&VSS students had higher support of classroom environment compared with the students from RSS and NSS. These findings were supported by the study by Machumu, Zhu and Sesabo (2016) who asserted that soft skills are applied at a higher level in T&VSS when students are in the classroom, workshop, and when students attend extra-curricular activities. Support of the students in T&VSS is inseparable from the support of teachers.…”

“…Emphasizing good relations with teachers is important so that students' commitment to learning are always high. Therefore, locally designed blended learning should be relevant to the environment for both students and teachers (Machumu, Zhu and Sesabo, 2016).…”

ICT as Blending Methodology: A Case Study in a Bilingual School in Castilla la Mancha

“…(cf. blended learning environment-BLE) (Machumu, Zhu & Sesabo, 2016;Ocak & Akçayır 2013;Radosavlevikj, 2016). In this direction, other researchers have studied similar effects and its impact on new methodological processes of education (Eryilmaz, 2015;Graham & Dziuban, 2015) According to these last trends in education and the extensive use of technology in every aspect of society, education cannot be left behind evolution and it must adapt itself.…”