Development and implementing of an EPSS for secondary school teachers' material development

This study aims to develop an EPSS in order for secondary school teachers to develop materials, and to determine the opinions of teachers. The study, in which a design-based research method was used, made use of the interview and observation technique for its qualitative part. Prior to the development of EPSS, 11 teachers were interviewed to determine the needs of teachers, and the data were collected through semi-structured interview forms in this interview and a qualitative study was carried out. Studies in this step were carried out to determine the expectations of teachers and to develop the most suitable EPSS software to meet their expectations. After EPSS was developed, the teachers were made to use the platform. For this reason, second and third cycle processes were implemented and have lasted for 6 weeks in total. During this process, the teachers' use of platform was observed and they were provided the technical support required for them to use it efficiently. In addition, at this stage, observations and interviews were made while 11 teachers who consisted of the sampling of the study were using the system. After the observation is completed, a semi-structured interview form was used to interview with the teachers. The study group of this research is consisted of the different branch teachers, who work at public secondary schools affiliated to Ministry of National Education. The data collection tools of the study are consisted of semi-structured interview forms and observation form. According to the research studies, it was observed that all steps in the applied observation form were implemented by teachers successfully. During the observation, it was observed that the sufficient changes and additions were made about the design and about the parts that needed to be organized in general. According to the results of the interviews made, teachers using the developed EPSS platform have stated that it is generally a practical system, that it provides motivation and self-confidence as it allows them to design their own materials, and that the sources added to the platform are sufficient. They expressed that designing a new material provided motivation, that they were happy, that it was fun and exciting, and that giving feedbacks after evaluation test was a distinguishing feature from other platforms. Lastly, it can be recommended to perform experimental studies on teachers and prospective teachers by means of the EPSS developed and to repeat it by using different scales in the future studies.