PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ E-LEARNING STYLES

Abstract

E-learning is becoming more popular than conventional teaching methods, particularly in science education. The use of e-learning has increased worldwide, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, students’ e-learning styles have gained even more importance. The participants of this survey, which aimed to examine e-learning styles for selected variables, consisted of 401 pre-service science teachers from two public universities in Turkey. The personal information form was used to obtain data on gender, university, personal computer ownership status, type of device used to connect to the internet, grade level, number of social network memberships, internet usage purpose, and duration of social media use. Another tool used in face-to-face data collection was the E-Learning Styles Scale (ESS). As a result of the analysis, it was understood that participants’ e-learning style scores were generally on the positive side. In terms of gender, grade level, and duration of social media use variables, there were statistically significant differences in the ESS and some of its sub-dimensions, while differences were found in only some sub-dimensions for the university variables, internet usage purpose, and number of social network memberships. Several suggestions were made in conjunction with the results of the descriptive and inferential analyses. Keywords: descriptive research, e-learning styles, pre-service science teachers, science education