Iranian Journal of Curriculum Studies

Iranian Journal of Curriculum Studies

Using the Community of Enquiry Model for Developing a Blended Teaching Approach for Trigonometry in Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
shahid beheshty university
Abstract
 
 




During the COVID-19 pandemic that all educational institutions were closed, face-to-face teaching substituted by online teaching. However, after that era and re-opening schools, both students and teachers could not ignore their online experiences. For this reason, many researchers became interested in finding ways of combining both face-to-face and online teaching. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to identify mathematics teachers’ views on integrating these two modes for teaching trigonometry. To do this, the researchers called for volunteer mathematics teachers via their various online social groups across the country and uploaded the research proposal as well. 17 high school mathematics teachers participated in the study, and all had experience of teaching trigonometry online as well. The study used the “Community of Inquiry Model” with three presences or components as social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and with participants’ consent, the interviews were audio-recorded. The data set included informal conversations, interview transcripts, the first author’s reflective notes, and the three authors shared views on the data. For the sake of reliability, the transcriptions of the interviews were sent to the interviewees for reflection and plausible modifications that they wanted to make. The data analysis began after participants’ confirmation of the interviews. The data were systematically reduced using thematic analysis. Eventually, four main themes emerged as “individualized instruction”, “the degree of centralization of education system”, “teachers’ autonomy”, and “curriculum flexibility”. In addition, two new components/presences identified as “subject matter” and “content and content organization” in addition to the three components of the Community of Inquiry model. The latter finding is the main innovation of this research and extends the theoretical model of community of inquiry one step further. From the teachers’ perspectives, expanding access to educational resources, providing internet infrastructure to promote educational equity, and policy decisions aimed at reducing centralization and increasing teacher autonomy are essential prerequisites for the effective implementation of blended learning. From teachers’ perspective, the effectiveness of blended teaching and ensuring educational equity, depends on increasing accessibility to the internet, reducing the degree of centralization of the education system and increasing teachers’ independence.  
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  • Receive Date 27 August 2025
  • Revise Date 19 October 2025
  • Accept Date 05 November 2025