Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Blended Learning Practice in the Malaysian Primary ESL Classroom: Exploring Belief–Practice Alignment

Abstract

In the current digital era, the use of technology in education is not uncommon. However, in the context of blended learning, the perspective of the teacher is often overlooked as research in the field mainly focused on the learners. This oversight highlights the importance of teacher cognition, which examines the congruence between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional blended learning practices. Therefore, the present study investigates the congruence between teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and their blended learning practice in the Malaysian primary English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom, an area that has received little attention compared to secondary or tertiary contexts. This research used the mixed-method approach where questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations were utilized to collect data. 144 Malaysian primary ESL teachers were from the district of Port Dickson, Malaysia were chosen as participants. Firstly, the quantitative findings indicated that teachers have high self-efficacy beliefs towards blended learning implementation whereas the qualitative findings showed that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs were in congruence with their blended learning practices. All five teachers reported and displayed high self-efficacy in employing blended learning in their classrooms, as evidenced by their high confidence and consistent integration of technology in their blended learning classroom. Consequently, these results highlighted the significance of fostering strong self-efficacy beliefs among language teachers, particularly in the realm of blended learning, which will lead to more effective learning experiences for pupils in the Malaysian primary ESL classroom context.