Inservice School Teachers Perception of Adopting Online-O ine Mode of Learning During Current Crisis


 The reverberation of the pandemic has been noticed throughout the globe and all the provinces of the society have been affected including the educational sector. The educational institutes have drastically shifted from traditional offline pedagogy of teaching-learning to online learning process. Researchers have a strong belief that the revolution of usage of computers and internet in the field of education has popped up the Blended Learning concept which totally relies on both traditional and technology to provide the education content to the learners in a good and virtual method effectively. Educationalists, researchers and policy makers believe that the offline-online pedagogy could be used as an effective methodology to cater the needs of the learners as well as the teachers during the crisis. The present action research study lays emphasis on the attitude of In-Service School Teachers towards adopting the online-offline approach during the current crisis. The findings reflected that there is no significant difference in the perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers in adopting the Blended Learning proactive pedagogical technique as both the section teachers are well aware of the importance of online as well as offline pedagogy and are also aware about the blended learning approach being the new normal during the crisis in order to reach out to all the learner audiences and make learning more flexible.


Introduction
The recent trend of utilization of technology in our regular routine lives has brought enormous changes with regard to knowledge distribution, construction and evaluation (Lim & Wang, 2016). The widespread availability and durability of information and communication technologies (ICT) has also transformed not only higher education institutions but also teacher training programs into multi-choice learning environments that are much more exible and reliant as compared to classroom learning experience.
These are more focused on learners' needs based on individual preference, which is independent of time and place (Singh & Kaurt, 2016). However, there is a desire to transform the teaching and learning pedagogies from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered model with ICT integration to its best and all possibilities in all dimensions of teaching and learning (Jani, Muszali, Nathan, & Abdullah, 2018).
Recently, due to the prevailing pandemic all educational institutes have experienced a shift in perception from fully online learning or distance learning towards Blended learning as a replacement of face-to-face teaching methods that were followed before the pandemic (Johnson et al., 2016).
Blended learning is studied as a successful and useful approach to unassertive knowledge which includes a large number of students, which also enlarges learning outside the conventional face-to-face learning environment (Oakley, 2016). BL is presently getting popular among institutions because of its positive in uences on student motivation and performance in general, as shown by Lu et al. (2018). BL assists teachers to involve students in active learning which encourages skills such as communication, information literacy, creativity and collaboration through which students' potential can be reconstructed to make optimum use of digital technologies for various uses. If acquired properly, then BL can turn schools and colleges into a more exible and moldable state to quickly adapt to changes; in an economical manner (Oakley, 2016).
Blended learning is a methodology that has been initiated over a decade earlier and is being used in the eld of education throughout. Blended learning is a combination of online learning with traditional classroom methods (face-to-face learning). Which requires the teacher and students both being physically present, with some factors of student control over time, place, path or pace and also, educational materials and technology for online communication. While students physically attending schools with a teacher present, face-to-face classroom practices are blended with computer based activities in terms of content and delivery to improve the teaching-learning experience and to motivate the students to search more to the given content (Saboowala and Manghirmalani Mishra, 2020) Over a period of time there has been a high growth in the adoption of Blended Learning (BL) in the eld of education, but just a few research emphases on adoption problems associated with learners, academic staff and management. Thus, research is required to direct and guide universities in deliberately reviewing learners, academic staff and management for adoption of BL.
Literature Review Oikawa et al. (2013) scrutinized that while students had positive perspectives towards BL in chemistry their academic achievement was not distressed. Thus, it seems that the particular designs that were used and the wants of the students may have to be deliberately scrutinized to improve the learning of the students. Yılmaz (2017) determined that undergraduate students sign up in BL courses because they had the notion that the BL course design would contribute for (1) better exchange of knowledge, (2) more practical and useful communication, (3) more simple course preparation and evaluation, (4) increased student involvement in research, (5) increased study time, (6) better preparation for the lecture, (7) greater cooperative learning, and (8) innovative instruction. Although students have particular reasons for signing up in BL courses it is signi cant to study their point of view for taking up these courses.
When BL is used within the spectrum of teacher education courses, students like to participate in the However, only two studies were found that concentrate on the use of BL in preservice science methods courses and those concentrate on its effects on secondary science teachers, particularly on their level of academic achievement Jahjouh, 2014) and the level of peer to peer cooperation ).
The literature also shows that, the execution of BL is more successful with instructor motivation in the classroom, but unfortunately, there is a lack of proper research on instructor motivation with regard to integrating educational technology in the classroom (Schechter, Kazakoff, Bundschuh, Prescott, & Macaruso, 2017). Before understanding the instructor's motivation, it is crucial to understand their attitude towards embracing a blended learning approach. Hence a small action research was undertaken to understand the attitude of primary and secondary school teachers towards blended learning approach during the prevailing pandemic.

Methodology, Tool, And Sample Of The Study
A descriptive survey was adopted for the present action research in order to study the perception of inservice school teachers towards adopting a blended learning approach during the current crisis. The tool for online learning was adopted from Aladwan et al. , 2018. The statements in the questionnaire were divided into the following three categories: item 1-12 for determining student attitudes toward blended instruction; item 13-24 to determine the negative attitudes and impressions of students from blended learning; item 25-36 -related to the de nition of students' understanding and ideas about mixed learning.
The available sample of 62 in-service school teachers was selected and data was collected through google forms due to the ongoing pandemic. The sample consists of 20 in-service primary school teachers and 42 in-service secondary school teachers. The Mean value for In-Service School Teachers was found to be 23, Median was found to be 23, Mode was found to be 26 and the Standard Deviation was found to be 5.15. The distribution is negatively skewed. The skewness is found to be -0.57. The Kurtosis is found to be -0.01 which is negative. Hence distribution is platykurtic.
The Mean value for Primary In-Service School Teachers was found to be 22.8, Median was found to be 26, Mode was found to be 26 and the Standard Deviation was found to be 6.98. The distribution is negatively skewed. The skewness is found to be -1.58. The kurtosis is found to be 2.32 which is positive.
Hence distribution is leptokurtic.
The Mean Value for Secondary In-Service School Teachers was found to be 23.02, Median found to be 22.5, Mode found to be 26 and the Standard Deviation was found to be 4.61. The distribution is negatively skewed. The skewness is found to be -0.01. The kurtosis is found to be -0.62 which is negative. Hence distribution is platykurtic.
Hypothesis 2: There is no signi cant difference in the perception of primary and secondary In-Service school teachers towards adopting a Blended learning approach during the current crisis. The above table shows the relevant inferential data that were used to test hypothesis 2.
The t value for perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers towards Blended Learning was found to be 0.15. p value was found to be 0.88 which is greater than 0.05, Hence, it is not signi cant. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted. There is no signi cant difference in the perception of primary and secondary in-service school teachers towards adopting a Blended learning approach during the current crisis  The above table shows the relevant inferential data that were used to test hypothesis 3.

The t value for perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers towards only Blended
Learning was found to be found to be 0.01. p value was found to be 0.99 which is greater than 0.05, hence it is not signi cant. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted. There is no signi cant difference in the perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers towards adopting only Blended Learning.
Hypothesis 4: There is no signi cant difference in the perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers towards understanding the need of Blended Learning. The above table shows the relevant inferential data that were used to test hypothesis 4.
The t value for perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers towards understanding the need of Blended Learning was found to be found to be 0.26. p value was found to be 0.79 which is greater than 0.05, hence it is not signi cant. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted. There is no signi cant difference in the perception of Primary and Secondary In-Service School Teachers towards understanding the need of Blended Learning.

Discussion And Conclusion
The results of this study depicted that in-service school teachers irrespective of their teaching sections i.e., primary or secondary had similar perception towards adopting blended learning approach and also towards understanding the need of this approach during current crisis. The school teachers have now understood that the traditional and conventional pedagogy of learning i.e. face-to face learning has elapsed and they have to revitalize the learning atmosphere by adopting Blended Learning approach wherein both online and o ine learnings are included especially during the prevailing pandemic that has affected all sectors of the society globally. The in-service teachers have been well-trained with online pedagogy through various workshops, webinars, training programs organized by various educational institutes. Irrespective of the teaching status or classes to which the school teachers are teaching, they are willing to adopt to the blended learning model, which will enable them to conduct online classes and go to school as and when required. This will also help in following all norms that are laid by the government bodies. In-Service School Teachers have well realized that learning cannot be con ned to the o ine learning only where schools are working only for mandatory reasons. Additionally, Blended Learning has now become a consensus pedagogy hence both primary and secondary in-service school teachers are leaving no stone unturned to acquire the approach. Moreover, the teachers are effectively aware of the fact that after the crisis till the time things don't become normal, the traditional teaching method cannot be adopted. So, there is a strong need to adopt new approaches such as Blended Learning in order to intertwine the online and o ine learnings. The primary in-service school teachers could realize how it is crucial to cater the age group of primary section by using the effective technological techniques so that the learners would attain fruitful education. On the other hand, the secondary in-service school teachers could well perceived that the learners are more engaged and develops critical thinking abilities after learning through Blended Learning. The In-Service School Teachers are well prepared to subjugate all the barriers that hinders the educational environment henceforth they have felt the necessity to escalate their scale and adopt the Blended Learning during the current prevailing pandemic crisis.