Investigation of the competency levels of science teachers in use of web 2.0 tools in distance education before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The aim of this research is to comparatively examine the Web 2.0 competency levels of Science teachers in distance education before and during the pandemic, and the factors that affect this competency. The research was conducted in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample of the research consists of a total of 235 Science teachers working in two private school chains – one with 153 campuses in 65 cities and the other one with 112 campuses in 52 cities – in Turkey. The data collection tools were a personal information form and the "Web 2.0 Tools Usage Competency Scale" designed by Çelik (2020). As for the analysis, dependent groups t-test was applied to compare the participants' Web 2.0 Tools Usage Competency scores before and during the pandemic. Also, independent groups t-test was applied to compare the scores obtained from the Web 2.0 Tools Usage Competency Scale based on the variables of gender, marital status, professional seniority, having children, number of children, educational status, aiming for promotion and title change, sense of belonging to one's institution, familiarity with Web 2.0 tools, using Web 2.0 tools, and being trained in the use of Web 2.0 tools; and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to compare the scores based on the variables of age group, undergraduate program graduated, weekly teaching load (hours), daily teaching load (hours) before and during the pandemic, and the source of training in Web 2.0 tools. SPSS 24.0 statistical package program was used for all the analyses. The confidence interval for the analyses was set to 95%. The analysis suggests that the competence level of science teachers in using Web 2.0 tools in distance education was higher during the pandemic than before the pandemic. According to the findings, while teachers' competence in using Web 2.0 tools in distance education both before and during the pandemic display significant differences in terms of some diagnostic characteristics (namely, age, marital status, having children and number of children, undergraduate program graduated, professional seniority, daily working hours during the pandemic, having the goal of promotion and title change, and having a sense of belonging to the institution they work for, knowing Web 2.0 tools, having received training in this field, the source of knowledge on Web 2.0 tools), no significant difference was found in terms of some other characteristics (gender, educational status, weekly lesson hours, daily working hours before the pandemic).