Manifestations of Cognitive Presence in Blended Learning Classes of the Philippine K-12 System

Petrea Redmond,Linda Galligan,Juliet Aleta Rivera Villanueva

doi:10.24059/olj.v26i1.3021

Abstract

Through an exploratory case study, this research sought to determine the applicability of the Community of Inquiry in the K–12 setting. There are research gaps to leverage support for blended learning and flexible learning options to benefit Filipino youth and school-leavers under the Alternative Delivery Mode of the Philippine K–12 system. This study was driven by the following research questions: How is cognitive presence manifested in the blended learning interactions? In what ways do the interactions of cognitive presence with the other presences characterize learning community building? Three blended learning classes were examined based on data collected through surveys, student focus group discussions, teacher interviews, class observations and archived data. Through constant comparison analysis and descriptive statistics, evidence revealed cognitive presence across its categories in the form of connectedness, collaborative work, trust and reciprocation, and shared views on technology by K–12 teachers and learners. The analysis affirmed “regulating learning” as the intersection of cognitive presence and teaching presence. Implications for practice and recommendations for further research are discussed through the study's proposed modifications on the cognitive presence categories, indicators, and the survey instrument for the K–12 setting where teacher-directed pedagogies or collaborative inquiry processes have not been thoroughly co-opted.

Highlights

Through an exploratory case study, this research sought to determine the applicability of the Community of Inquiry in the K–12 setting
There have been few frameworks formulated for K–12 blended learning (BL) which draw from the longstanding work of Garrison et al.’s (2001) Community of Inquiry (CoI) validated in higher education
Among all CoI Part 1 Survey items, cognitive presence (CP) items gained the highest mean ratings compared to Social presence (SP) and Teaching presence (TP) items

Summary

Introduction

Through an exploratory case study, this research sought to determine the applicability of the Community of Inquiry in the K–12 setting. Implications for practice and recommendations for further research are discussed through the study's proposed modifications on the cognitive presence categories, indicators, and the survey instrument for the K–12 setting where teacher-directed pedagogies or collaborative inquiry processes have not been thoroughly co-opted. Research gaps exist in the context of learning communities at the K–12 levels, which have increasingly introduced flexible modes of delivery referred to as cyber schools or virtual schools in Western countries (Borup et al, 2020; Molnar et al, 2019) or open high schools and alternative delivery modes in developing countries (Villanueva, 2021) These settings need to ensure student interaction through computer-mediated communications and other media technologies to accommodate a growing population of marginalized secondary-level learners seeking access to education and alternative ways to learn. While most research has transpired in Canada and the U.S being English speaking countries, to date, the CoI instrument has been translated to Chinese (Ma et al, 2016), Korean (Yu & Richardson, 2015), Portuguese (Moreira et al, 2013), Turkish (Olpak & Kiliç Çakmak, 2018) and adapted in Filipino for the K– 12 (Villanueva, 2020)

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Conclusion