Examination of the relationship between the attitudes of teacher candidates towards technology and their opinions of distance education

Abstract

The study aims to determine the teacher candidates’ evaluation level of the distance education process and their attitudes toward the technology through their distance education courses and whether there is a relationship between the levels of evaluation of the distance education process. A quantitative research approach was adopted in the research, and the research process was structured in a descriptive and relational survey model. 81 teacher candidates studying in three different departments, namely Classroom, Mathematics and Social Studies Education at Kirsehir Ahi Evran University Faculty of Education, participated in the study. The Distance Education Process Evaluation Scale (DEPES) and the Attitude towards Technology Scale (ATS) were used as data collection tools in the research. Non-parametric statistics were used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman-Brown correlation analysis were employed. The results revealed that there is a positive and moderately significant relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards technology and their level of evaluation of the distance education process. It has been determined that there is a positive and moderate relationship between teacher candidates’ evaluation levels of accessibility, usability, attitude, technological facilities, and self-efficacy, which are the sub-dimensions of the scale of the distance education process evaluation, and their attitudes towards technology. In addition, it was determined that the pre-service teachers evaluated the distance education process at a moderate level, and they evaluated the distance education accessibility and usability dimensions relatively higher than the other sub-dimensions.