Abstract
This study aims to determine the perceptions of secondary school students for the concept of distance education in the pandemic process through metaphors. The case study design has been applied in this qualitative study. The study group was formed by the 322 students attending five different schools’ 5th-8th graders in Hatay in the 2020-2021 academic year. The study group of the research was selected using the purposive sampling method. The data was collected using a metaphorical perception sentence prepared for the gap-filling method. Each student was asked to produce a metaphor and to complete the statement “Distance Education is like . . . because . . .” to draw an analogy. The data was analyzed using the content analysis technique. According to data analysis, it was found that 300 valid metaphors were developed. Metaphors were classified into 3 groups such as “positive”, “negative”, “neutral”. Of the students in the study, 49.00% produced negative, 44.33% positive, and 6.67% neutral metaphors. The most dominant metaphors were given respectively “Stranger” (f=14), “School” (f=13), “Best friend” (f=9), “Parents’ meeting” (f=7). According to negative metaphors, distance education is not effective and does not provide permanent learning. According to positive metaphors, distance education is a new teaching system that meets our needs using technology during the pandemic period. According to neutral metaphors, distance education is a mandatory stage of education in the pandemic process. The Ministry of National Education should invest in developing a flexible education system that supports electronic and distance learning for the future of the education system. Consequently, improvements can be made in distance education practices by considering students' perceptions. It is believed that this study will shed light on distance education studies in the future.
Highlights
For the past two years, the whole world has been infected with a newly discovered type of virus called coronavirus (COVID-19) and is facing a major health crisis
When we look at the literature, it is stated that there is a significant difference in access to digital tools in the distance education process and this will deepen the inequalities against disadvantaged children (Aedo, at al., 020; Çelik and Şahin, 2020; Saavedra, 2020a; Özdoğan and Berkant, 2020; UNESCO, 2020; World Bank, 2020)
Some statements including positive metaphors are given as an example below and each statement belongs to a different class level
Summary
For the past two years, the whole world has been infected with a newly discovered type of virus called coronavirus (COVID-19) and is facing a major health crisis. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2020 has been a year like no other and the COVID-19 pandemic has created the most severe disruption to global education systems in history, forcing more than 1.6 billion learners in over 190 countries out of school at the peak of the crisis (UNESCO, 2021a) For this reason, students' access to education has been limited, and Turkey, like other countries in the world, has tried to solve the existing problem and find alternatives in a short time. A few weeks of holidays were announced at educational institutions, but later adding news of deaths to the increase in the number of cases, it was decided that schools would not be able to open in the spring semester In this regard, just like in Turkey emergency distance education solutions have become the mandatory choice of countries to ensure the continuation of educational processes during this period (Özer and Suna, 2020). In Turkey, to meet the educational needs of students in the COVID-19 process, it was stated that education would be carried out through the Education Information Network (EBA), which is the digital education platform of the Ministry, and the Turkish Radio and Television Authority (TRT) (Özer and Suna, 2020)
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