Blended learning in Saudi Arabia girls' secondary schools :an exploratory case study

Blended learning (BL) has been the subject of much research recently, and the presentdissertation adds to this growing body of knowledge as the first substantial study on BL insecondary education for girls in Saudi Arabia. Based on field work comprising interviewsand questionnaires this thesis reports the results of an exploratory, empirical case study of alarge-scale programme (Tatweer project) for the introduction of blended learning into 25traditional secondary girls' schools in Saudi Arabia. Adopting the interpretive researchparadigm the objective of the study is to gain rich insight into blended learning guided bythree interrelated themes:Effect of BL on female education: The study demonstrates a number of positive effects ofBL on students' engagement and self-development, however, problems with the workloadsof students and the failure of teachers to integrate face-to-face learning with e-learning arealso observed.Teacher development: Teachers' perceptions of benefits and drawbacks of BL arepresented and analysed. Contrary to suggestions in parts of the literature only a minority ofteachers perceive a change in their role from traditional, instructor-led teaching towards afacilitator role.Organisational change in schools: The study identifies implementation problems duringthe Tatweer programme. Links to critical success factors of BL and research on effectivemanagement and leadership are investigated.Throughout the research Sharpe et al.'s (2006) 8-dimensional framework of BL is applied ina new way to assess the implementation level of BL. This results in the recommendation toextend this framework with an ethical dimension. Further recommendations of the work areto actively seek feedback from key stakeholder groups during BL implementation, to use BLfor teacher training in BL, and to measure performance indicators like students' workloadsduring the transition of traditional schools to BL