Teachers' Views on Distance Education: Turkey in the COVID-19 Pandemic Process

In this research, it is aimed to determine the experiences of teachers in depth by examining their perspectives on the positive or negative situations they had experienced in the distance education process during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The research was conducted via a mixed method research design in which both qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized together. While the measurement tool prepared by the researchers was used in the quantitative part of the study, two different methods were used in the qualitative part. In the first method, the data collected from the participants with the measurement tool were analyzed and each scale item was interpreted with a qualitative approach. In the second method, the data collected from the teachers with a semi-structured interview form were interpreted with content and descriptive analysis. The study group of the research consists of 209 teachers who were involved in distance education or hybrid education due to COVID-19 in different regions and at different levels. The quantitative analyzes of the data obtained from the surveys were carried out by using SPSS 25 and the qualitative analyzes were carried out by using MAXQDA 2020 Analytics Pro. According to the obtained quantitative findings, teachers expressed negative opinions about distance education and stated that they considered themselves partially sufficient. It has been determined that according to the qualitative findings, in the category of positive aspects of distance education, the codes with the most opinions were time saving, increase in technological knowledge and flexibility in place; In the negative aspects category were inequality of opportunity, social-emotional problems and distraction.