The Perceptions of Primary School Teachers of Distance Education During The Pandemic Period: A Mixed Method Research

Abstract

This study aims to determine the views of classroom teachers about distance education during the pandemic period, to understand how distance education was applied in Turkey, and to determine whether the findings can be generalizable. For this purpose, the study was designed with the exploratory sequential mixed research design. In the qualitative dimension, opinions were obtained from 10 classroom teachers working in different provinces through a semi-structured interview form. In line with the data obtained in the qualitative dimension, initially scale development studies were carried out and a quantitative data collection tool was created. The Teacher Opinions and Suggestions About Distance Education Applications of MEB (Turkish Ministry of Education) for Primary School Scale and the personal information form, were created in the quantitative dimension of the research and applied to a total of 719 classroom teachers throughout Turkey. Descriptive statistics were used to determine teachers' characteristics, opinions, and suggestions; a t-test, one-way analysis of variance was used to determine whether there was a difference between teachers' opinions according to some personal characteristics. The Scheffe test was used to determine the source of the differences. As a result of the research, it is found that %11,68 of all teachers believe that distance education practices are suitable for primary school students. Further, it is observed that there is a significant difference in some sub-dimensions such as experience, class size, place of duty, and the region where they work. But, there was no significant difference in terms of suggestions.