Demotivating factors experienced by teacher educators in synchronous distance education: A hermeneutic phenomenology research

Abstract

Just like every system, distance education also has disadvantages as well as advantages. The aim of the study is to examine the experiences of the teacher trainers about the difficulties or problems that demotivate them in synchronous distance education applications from a hermeneutic phenomenological point of view and to explain in detail their justifications. In this study, attention was paid to the fact that the teacher trainers had synchronous distance education experience of at least two years. The research participants were chosen in accordance with the purposive maximum variation sampling strategy. Eleven teacher trainers consented to participate. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the teacher trainers were partly demotivated in the synchorous distance education process. Different sources of this demotivation were obtained from the findings of the trainers based on their experiences. Accordingly, it has been concluded that the factors that demotivate the trainers are, technological and physical infrastructure problems, hardware inadequacies, problems arising from the characteristics of the platforms used, the inadequacies and inexperience of the trainers themselves in synchronized distance education, the unwillingness of the students in this process, the technological inadequacies and problems students experience in synchronized distance education, the inability to effectively measure and evaluate pedagogically, the inability to implement different teaching methods in the classroom, the inadequacies of the instructional programmes and course materials, the inability to create a studentteacher and student-student interaction.