A synchronous online learning experience from the instructors' perspective: Lesson observation process

In distance education, it is necessary to focus on not only learners but also teachers in order to increase the quality because distance education institutions that have transformed digitally are also expected to transform mentally. For this purpose, there is a need to increase critical reflective practices in distance education in order to support online teacher transformation and empowerment of teachers. As a matter of fact, it is seen that professional development studies based on reflective practices in distance education remain in the background. The increasing interest in distance education with the outbreak of Covid-19 Pandemic has also affected the acceleration of professional development studies in many higher education institutions. Nevertheless, while lesson observation which has become an important part of professional development is very common in traditional face-to-face education, there are very few studies on the observation of online synchronous lessons. Among these studies, no study has specifically focused on teachers who give online lessons. This study has sought to find out the feelings and experiences of English instructors involved in the online lesson observation process. This qualitative study designed as phenomenological research included seven volunteer instructors who teach English Language in English Preparatory Program, School of Foreign Languages at Dumlupınar University and who experienced the lesson observation process. The data of the study were gathered through a semi-structured interview conducted by the researcher. The data were analyzed by content analysis using coding and then categories and themes were formed. With this study, it was revealed that positive emotions such as "excitement, happiness, satisfaction, satisfaction" were felt intensely during the lesson observation process, that these feelings meant different things for each participant and they had different method to cope with the emotions, and that some positive changes were experienced after the observation process. Accordingly, the findings were grouped under three main themes with respect to the research questions of the study and then discussed: "an overview of the observation process", "experiential affective reflection" and "perceived gains". Some suggestions have been made with respect to the results. Keywords: Synchronous online lesson observation, Distance education, Professional development, Phenomenology