TEACHERS' READINESS FOR BLENDED LEARNING,THEIR REASONS, CHALLENGES, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTISING BLENDED LEARNING

This study aims to understand the experiences of Turkish teachers in blended learning, the challenges they encountered, and their recommendations in this regard. The authors adapted the Blended Teaching Readiness Instrument (BTRI) (Archibald et al., 2021) to Turkish. Secondly, the reasons, challenges, and suggestions of teachers regarding blended learning were investigated. A total of 325 Turkish teachers were selected as the participant group in this survey. A criterion purposeful sampling method was used in the data collection process. The statistical analysis led to the conclusion that the BTRI, which was translated into Turkish, is a valid and reliable tool for measuring teachers' levels of readiness for blended learning in Turkiye and it can also be used to gauge the readiness of teachers. ort he qualitative aspect, inductive content analysis was used for analyzing open-ended questions of the instrument. The study both served as a reflection of Turkish teachers' positive and negative experiences regarding blended learning practices and a scale adaptation study for measuring the blended teaching readiness of Turkish teachers. It is considered that the results can help both pre -service and in-service teachers to be sensitive toward their blended teaching competencies. This study also has the potential for informing teacher education departments to equip prospective teachers with required disciplinary knowledge along with digital competencies.