Investigation of distance professional development activities based on views of administrators and teachers: Gülağaç case

The effectiveness of distance professional development activities for educators in formal education in Turkey is a matter of debate. Considering the importance of professional in-service training, there is a need to examine this issue in depth and comprehensively in different contexts. The aim of this study is to examine distance professional development activities in terms of the attitudes, motivation and professional practices of school administrators and teachers, to present suggestions to improve the effectiveness of distance professional development activities at individual, institutional and system levels, and to improve the professional development practices of the participants in this way. This study was conducted in a descriptive design with a mixed method suitable for in-depth examination of the phenomenon. The universe of the study consisted of school administrators and teachers working in state-affiliated secondary schools in the Gülağaç district of Aksaray province in the 2023-2024 academic year. No sample was taken in this study, a total of 101 educators were studied with the complete count method. Qualitative data were collected using a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher and through focus group interviews. Three focus group interviews were conducted with a one-week interval, each with five teachers. A quantitative data collection tool was developed based on the findings of the qualitative data analysing. Quantitative data was collected through a survey containing Likert-type items. Descriptive and content analyses were used in qualitative data analysis. Descriptive statistics were performed in quantitative data analysis. The study found out that the effectiveness of distance professional development activities was low. This study also revealed that motivation was low on the participant side and that there was a negative attitude towards distance professional development activities. Another important result is that the school administration is indifferent to the planning-organization-evaluation processes of distance professional development activities. In this context, suggestions about the roles of school administrators were developed regarding encouraging, supporting, and enabling professional development.