An Investigation into Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Regulated Online Learning Perceptions

Abstract

The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 pandemics has accelerated the process of technological transformation experienced by educational institutions. Traditional face-to-face education has been replaced by distance education as a precaution to minimize physical contact among the teachers and the students. As a result, self-regulatory skills have become a more significant factor for academic success in distance education. In line with this, the main aim of the study is to identify the level of self-regulated online learning perceptions of pre-service teachers in Turkish higher education context. Furthermore, the study also aims to reveal whether the pre-service teachers’ self-regulated online learning perceptions differ according to several variables such as their gender, department, class, level of digital literacy and the time they daily spend online. A total of 353 pre-service teachers from various departments have participated in the study. The findings of the study indicate that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of self-regulated online learning are at moderate level; thus, it can be argued that the level of their perceptions is far from satisfactory. Additionally, it has been observed that the pre-service teachers’ self-regulated online learning perceptions differ according to their gender, level of digital literacy and time daily spent online. To be more precise, it has been noted that self-regulated online learning perceptions of female pre-service teachers are higher than those of male pre-service teachers. In a similar vein, it has been observed that the higher the level of digital literacy and the more time spent online, the higher the self-regulated online learning perceptions of pre-service teachers. The overall results of the study suggest that self-regulation skills of the pre-service teachers need to be emphasized and improved with the aim of contributing to the efficient implementation of distance education.