The Views of Turkish Language Teachers on Distance Education and Digital Literacy during Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Distance education, which provides flexibility in the learning environment, is an important learning model that complements face-to-face education. However, during the unanticipated Covid-19 pandemic, the distance education model was employed as an alternative instruction model, albeit temporarily, and certain problems were experienced in this process. In this context, the views of the Turkish language teachers on distance education and digital literacy in Turkey, where average population is quite young and the impact of the pandemic was substantial, was investigated in the present study. The study was conducted with the phenomenological design, a qualitative research method, and the study group included middle school Turkish language teachers who conducted distance education during the four months of the pandemic process. In the study, a semi-structured interview form, developed by the authors, was employed as the data collection instrument, and the collected data were analyzed with content analysis. The study findings revealed problems such as student attendance; digital problems such as Internet connectivity, infrastructure, and system; interaction, interest and commitment; literacy problems such as inability of distance education to improve written expression skills of the students; inadequate synchronous/online class count and duration, and poor parent-student-teacher cooperation. Based on these findings, it was recommended to design multimedia material that allow bidirectional interaction and improve inter-institutional cooperation to solve digital problems.