Investigation of the benefit perceptions of distance education of classroom teachers in the framework of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic

The purpose of this research is to determine the level of the classroom teachers' perceptions of the benefits of distance education. The sample of the study consists of 135 (woman: 72, man: 63) volunteer classroom teachers who were accessed via remote access due to the Coronavirus (Covid 19) Pandemic conditions. In the study, data on teachers' perceptions of benefit towards distance education were collected through the 'Benefit Perception Scale for Distance Education' developed by Yıldız (2015). The scale has sub-dimensions of richness of learning experiences, effectiveness of learning products and system economy. The data collected from the teachers were recorded and analyzed in the statistics program. In order to decide the normality of the distribution, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, kurtosis and skewness values, which are the other assumptions of the normal distribution, were used. In the comparison of two independent groups, the t-test (Independent sample t-test) was used, if the variances showed homogeneity in the comparison of two or more unrelated groups, One Way ANOVA was used, if the variances did not show homogeneity, Welch statistics were used. According to the research findings, it was seen that there was no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the benefits of distance education of the classroom teachers according to the variables determined by the researcher (except for the education status). No significant difference was found between teachers' perceptions of the benefits of distance education and the gender variable. In addition, although the classroom teachers' perceptions of the benefits of distance education differ according to the variable of professional seniority (0-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years, 16 and above), it has been concluded that this difference is not significant. Likewise, it has been concluded that there is no significant difference between teachers' perceptions of the benefits of distance education according to the grade level they teach (1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade) and according to the employment types of classroom teachers (paid, contracted, permanent staff). In terms of the variable of educational status, which is another sub-problem of the research, it was determined that the perceptions of benefit of the classroom teachers differed significantly. In this context, it was observed that the perceptions of benefit of postgraduate and doctoral graduate teachers were higher than the perceptions of benefit of associate degree and undergraduate teachers. Keywords: distance learning, perception of benefit, coronavirus