Examining Teacher Readiness for Blended Learning: A Case Study in a Sri Lankan Government 1AB School

Abstract

The integration of Blended Learning (BL), where traditional face-to-face instruction combines digital and online tools into general education, has become increasingly significant with the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the continuity of education. BL provides flexible, personalized education that promotes student responsibility and digital literacy, but a gap remains between Sri Lanka’s policy goals and teachers’ potential to implement them. This article explores teacher readiness for implementing the BL approach at a Sri Lankan Government 1AB school, focusing how teachers express their preparedness for BL in terms of digital skills, pedagogical strategies, andresource availability; challenges teachers face when implementing BL; and support systems and resources required to enhance teacher effectiveness as research objectives. A qualitative research methodology was employed, and datawere collected from six teachers representing different subject disciplines in grades 6-11 through semi-structured interviews. The responses were thematically analyzed to identify key patterns and themes. According to the findings, participants are open and positive towards BL, but limited resources and infrastructure, a lack of subjectspecificdigital content, language barriers, and a lack of training on digitalization and education technology hinder its effectiveness. Resource limitations led teachers to utilize their personal devices, which is a privacy concern between work and personal life affairs, and they must depend on freely available learning management platformssuch as e-Thaksalawa and DP education. Digital tools are mainly used for content delivery and communication,with the least utilization for assessment and interactive learning. The study highlights the need for improved infrastructure, ongoing professional development, supervision, and contextualized pedagogical innovations, offering key insights for policymakers, educational leaders, and teacher educators to foster an inclusive, technology-enabled education system in Sri Lanka.