Exploring teacher's motivational practices and student motivation in the blended learning model

Education in the 21st century requires an instructional approach that can meet the demands of the new generation who is growing up in technologically advanced environments. Being a model of the 21st century 'Blended learning' offers an integrated learning experience with incorporated learning modalities, and is considered to be an improvement to face-to-face teaching methods rather than fully online distance learning. The motivational affordances that can be employed by instructors in online settings have attracted a great deal of attention, however, there is very limited information on teachers' crucial role in facilitating their students' motivation and how it helps to form the process of motivation in blended learning environments in an actual classroom context. With the aim of addressing this gap, the research employed a mixed method to investigate the link between the motivational practices of teachers and students' motivation in the blended learning context. Adopting the current 'motivation in context' perspective this study seeks empirical data obtained through classroom observations- both in face-to-face and online modalities involving 11 teachers and 352 students. By utilizing the two most dominant theories in motivation; namely the L2 Motivational Self System and Self-Determination theory, the research equally highlights the difference in the accommodation of teachers' motivational practices between online and face-to-face modalities and how these strategies satisfy the basic phycological needs of the students. Understanding teachers' crucial role in facilitating their students' motivation and how it helps to form the process of motivation has key implications for classroom practice.