Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
h International Symposium on Turkish Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT-5), Antalya, Türkiye, 28 - 30 Ekim 2021, ss.128-129
With the rapid changes and developments due to the coronavirus pandemic, distance education processes were taken into account than ever before. These changes bring a new dimension to recent efforts in digitalization of education. The purpose of the current study directionally is to determine middle school mathematics teachers’ views, technology preferences and instructional attempts during the distance education. The study was realized through descriptive survey model. Research population is middle school mathematics teachers of National Ministry of Education in Turkey. Conventional and snowball sampling methods were utilized and 235 teachers participated from seven regional districts of Turkey voluntarily. An online questionnaire named “Mathematics Education at a Distance” was developed by the researchers, and this form covered 61 items accompanied with some demographic sections. Expert views were received from Measurement and Evaluation, Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Mathematics and Science Education and Turkish Education departments. To enhance and increase validity, two secondary school mathematics teachers completed the questionnaire and their views also used in giving the final form. The results of the study show that 97.3% of teachers entering EBA for conducting online lessons prefer Zoom, and 96% of teachers use screen sharing functions. One third of the participants record their lessons and two third open their webcams. Before the distance education, teachers commented that they used concrete manipulatives provided by MEB (abbreviation for National Ministry of Education) the most (78.6%), z-kitap (enriched e-book) and drawing tools followed this usage. On the other hand, as the distance education occur z-kitap took the first place and 87.3% of teachers used it. Within teaching methods, creative drama and performance projects decreased in half, and groupworks decreased nearly 80%. Most of the teachers used in-class performance evaluation (64.8%) and multiple choice exams (61%). EBA’s functions regarding measurement and evaluation were used the most (51%), and Web tools (Kahoot, Zipgrade, Quizizz et al.) followed them (26.5%). 49.2% of the participants commented a moderate efficacy in technology use in mathematics instruction before the distance education, while 72.2% of the participants mentioned that their efficacy increased.Nearly two third of the teachers commented that most of the students did not joined the classroom activities actively, and give an impression of being only listeners of the lesson. Contrary to this finding, an interesting finding is that 65.5% of the teachers pointed out that the students’ grade point averages in the distance education are higher than face to face education.
Keywords: Middle school mathematics teachers, distance education, online video conference tools, instructional technologies, teaching
methods.