Analysis of teachers' views on distance education applied in the COVID-19 process (Example of Mardin province)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were Decoupled in 188 countries. As a result, about 1.7 billion students (about 88%) had their education interrupted and were directly or indirectly affected by the epidemic (OECD, 2020a). In this research, it is aimed to analyze the views of teachers on distance education applied in the COVID-19 process. The universe of the research is 13.058 teachers working in educational institutions affiliated to Mardin province in the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample of the research consists of 420 teachers determined by random sampling for the quantitative dimension and 20 teachers determined by purposeful sampling for the qualitative dimension. The research is based on the mixed method model. The quantitative dimension of the research is in the descriptive screening model and the qualitative dimension is in the phenomenon science pattern (phenomenology) model. The data of the study were collected using a scale developed by the researcher and a semi-structured interview form. According to the results of the analysis of quantitative data with the SPSS 26.0 program, it has been determined that the scale consists of 23 items and 5 dimensions. In the factor analysis of the scale, Basic Components Analysis and Varimax rotation method were used. The dimensions of the scale were named as "General characteristics of distance education", "Tools in distance education", "Requirements for participation in live lessons", "Student attitudes towards live lessons" and "Teacher attitudes towards live lessons". The scale explains 54.61% of the total variance, the KMO coefficient was calculated as 0.828, the Barlett's Test significance value was 0.000 and the Cronbach-Alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated as 0.845. According to the results of the analysis, it has been revealed that the scale, which aims to evaluate the opinions of teachers about distance education, is a valid and reliable measurement tool. Statistical techniques such as mean, percentage, frequency, t-test, ANOVA were used in the analysis of the sub-problems. According to the results of the analysis by the teachers; it has been seen that the Web portal is effective in distance education (X=2.68), the TV channels established for distance education are not very effective (X=2.07), distance education provides the advantage of freedom of space (X=3.40) but does not provide equality of opportunity in education (X=1.69), the thoughts that educational administrators have high expectations in distance education prevail (X=3.76). While there was no statistically significant difference between the opinions of teachers and the gender variable, statistically significant differences were found in other variables. Dec. According to the results of content analysis with the MAXQDA program of qualitative data; Themes named as "Advantage", "Limitation", "Technology", "Expectation" and "Disadvantage" were obtained. In qualitative data, it was seen that teachers' responses emphasized the importance of the complementary effect of distance education, while they evaluated the equipment required for distance education and the lack of participation in distance education as a negative opinion.