Examination of the correlation between primary school teachers' teaching motivations and attitudes towards distance education

The aim of this study is to examine the correlations between primary school teachers' attitudes towards distance education and their teaching motivation. Sample of the research consists of 318 female and 181 male (n=499) primary school teacher working in Adana. In the study, two scales were implemented. The first, Teaching Motivation Scale, which consists of two sub-dimensions, called intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, developed by Kauffman, Yılmaz Soylu and Duke (2011) and it was adapted into Turkish by Ayık, Ataş Akdemir and Seçer (2015). The second, the Attitude Scale towards Distance Education consisting of one sub-dimension developed by Kışla (2016) was used. The data collected from the primary school teachers were analyzed with the SPSS 20 package program. Statistical techniques such as t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis were used to answer the research questions. As a result of the research, it was determined that primary school teachers' teaching motivation scores and their attitude scores towards distance education were above the medium level. The group with the highest teaching motivation scores was the teachers with a seniority of 1-5 years, while the group with the lowest teaching motivation scores was the teachers with a seniority of 11-20 years. Regarding attitudes towards distance education scores of teachers, the group with the highest average score is the teachers with 11-20 years of seniority, while the group with the lowest average score is the teachers with 1-5 years of seniority. In addition, no significant relationship was found between primary school teachers' attitudes towards distance education and their intrinsic and extrinsic teaching motivations. Moreover, teachers' teaching motivations and attitudes towards distance education did not show a significant difference in terms of teachers' gender and their professional seniorities. Finally, no significant relationship was found between primary school teachers' teaching motivations and their attitude scores towards distance education. Keywords: Primary school teachers, distance education, attitude, teaching motivation.