Views of formal and distance education learners on educational thought and applications

Individuals have a philosophy of life as well as educational philosophy. What is important in the educational philosophy is the meanings, thoughts and practices individuals impose on education. In this context, determination of educational thinking and practices of distance and formal education students is gaining importance for increasing distance education applications. The aim of this study is to evaluate educational thinking and applications of students of distance education and students of formal education. Within the framework of this general purpose, students' gender, age, education level, ownership of a computer, internet access, internet access locations (internet café, home, school, work place, through mobile phone), knowledge level about distance education, distance education experiences were investigated whether each affects their views. Convenience sampling method was used for participation selection. A total of 281 students were recruited (198 students registered to Department of Education at Fırat University and 83 Department of Distance Education). For data collection, Educational Thought and Applications Scale was used. The scale has 42 items. The data obtained from this scale were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 data analysis programs. Kolmogorov-Smirnov value was evaluated from normality tests. Expected normal distribution was observed; thus, parametric tests were applied for analysis purposes. Frequencies, percentages, t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Post Hoc Scheffe tests were applied. The findings were interpreted according to p <.05 significance level. As a result of the study, it was concluded that there was no significant difference between formal education and distance education students based on their educational status. However, formal education students stated that they did not agree on items specifically in traditional education factor of the scale.