Mental Imageries of Teachers on Distance Education in Turkey

Distance education is an education type applied under ordinary and extraordinary conditions. This type of education has synchronous and asynchronous dimensions of realization. It can be said that computer-based internet technologies gain significance in a process where any of these dimensions are used. In these technology-supported learning environments, it is remarkable that the teacher and the student are in different perimeters. In this context, it can be stated that the concept of "distance education" requires a particular perspective, and the existing mentality of people diverts this perspective. Therefore, this study primarily aims to determine the teachers' perceptions of distance education concepts according to their genders by using mental imageries. The working group of this research, which was prepared according to the qualitative methods, consisted of 100 teachers (38 males and 62 females) who served in various academic majors in public and private educational institutions in many provinces of Turkey during the 2020-2021 school year. The study data were obtained through a survey in which the participant teachers filled in the blank spaces in the sentence of " Distance education is similar to ... because ... ". Study data were interpreted using the content analysis technique. Regarding the distance education concept, teachers produced mental imageries under twelve different themes. When these various themes were evaluated, it was observed that the teachers mostly formed their mental imagery by considering the "Image of Nature" theme.