Investigation of attributes and opinions of science teachers on distance education in the Covid-19 process (Elazığ province)

The aim of this research is to determine the attitudes and opinions of science teachers in the central district of Elazığ province towards distance education during the Covid-19 process. The research is carried out in the II. of the 2020-2021 academic year. It was applied in the months of May-June. The universe of the research consists of 177 (94 female, 83 male) science teachers in the central district of Elazig. 23 teachers could not participate in the research due to various reasons and the sample of the research consists of 154 (84 female, 70 male) teachers. The "Attitude Scale Towards Distance Education" developed by Ağır (2007) was used to collect the quantitative data of the study. In addition, a structured interview form developed by the researcher was used. A lot of data was collected in the mixed method, where both quantitative and qualitative methods were used at the same time. The quantitative data collected from the teachers were analyzed using the SPSS program. Content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. According to the quantitative findings obtained from the study, it was determined that there was no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of the participants towards distance education according to the gender variable (p=.745>.05). However, with a slight difference, the attitudes of male teachers were higher than the attitudes of female teachers. In addition, no statistically significant difference was found between teachers' attitudes towards distance education and the duration of internet use (p=.299>.05). In addition, it has been determined that there is a significant difference between the attitudes of teachers' professional seniority towards distance education [F = 4.339, p=.006>.05] and as the years of service increase, teachers' attitudes change negatively. Likewise, it was determined that teachers' knowledge about distance education did not make a significant difference in their attitude levels (p=.210>.05). Teachers' postgraduate education positively affects their attitudes towards distance education (p=.0029<.05). When the findings obtained from the interview form prepared by the researcher are examined; It is understood that most of the teachers know what distance education means. The thought of whether distance education will be effective in science lessons is that one group of teachers thinks that the lesson will not be effective due to the fact that it is a lesson that requires practice, while another group of teachers is of the opinion that the technology-supported lesson will be more effective. Teachers are also aware of the advantages and disadvantages of distance education. According to the results of this research, it is suggested that science teachers should be given in-service training and improve themselves in this field so that they have more adequate equipment about distance education.