Development of a Scale on Teachers' Perspectives on Distance Education during the Covid-19 Period: Validity and Reliability Study
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Abstract
This study aims to develop the "The Scale of Evaluation of Distance Education from Teacher's Perspective in the Covid 19 Era" to examine the effects of the pandemic on education from the perspectives of teachers. The research design employed in this study is the survey design of descriptive research, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The scale items, which were developed through a literature review conducted by the researcher, were administered to teachers working in state schools in Istanbul at different levels (from preschool to secondary education) and in different subject areas. Participant responses were collected voluntarily through an electronic platform. Initially, 1200 individuals were selected for exploratory factor analysis. After removing incomplete or inappropriate responses from the collected data, data analysis was conducted with 8973 participants. Obtaining data from a wide range of participants in the study is important for presenting a general overview of teachers' perspectives nationwide and generating solutions to educational needs. In the study, the structural equation modeling was employed to determine the direction of the effects of the statements constituting the factors and the factors associated with these statements. As a result, a 46-item scale consisting of 9 factors was obtained. The reliability coefficient for the entire scale was .95, while the reliability indices for each factor were as follows: .87 for the digital course content factor, .80 for the teacher competency factor, .89 for the screen dependency factor, .92 for the parent support factor, .93 for the communication processes factor, .92 for the efficient use of the Electronic Education Information System (EBA) factor, .81 for the computer and internet access factor, .87 for the EBA support points factor, and .90 for the compensation of learning losses factor. In future research on distance education, it is recommended to apply this scale, which has established validity and reliability, to teachers working in different cities and regions of the country to examine whether their perspectives vary according to their duty areas. Furthermore, administering the scale to teachers in different subject areas would help reveal differences in perspectives based on subject specialization in future studies.
