THE DISTANCE EDUCATION PROCESS WITH A DIFFERENT VIEW: DETERMINING THE METAPHORIC PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the mental images of seventh-grade students regarding the concept of distance education through metaphors. The study group of the research; consists of a total of 46 seventh grade students, 25 girls and 21 boys, who study at a private school in the center of Kayseri, determined by appropriate sampling. These students receive distance education as synchronous and asynchronously on different platforms within the scope of social distance measures taken in the COVID-19 (coronavirus) virus epidemic. The study was designed with a phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research method designs. In order to collect the data, they were asked to complete the sentence "Distance education is like… because…" by accessing the phone applications. The collected data were analyzed by content analysis, which is one of the qualitative research method analysis types. In this study, 46 metaphors were obtained and these metaphors were grouped under 12 categories. While students thought not only distance education was the most necessary, they also described it as optional, inefficient, uncertain, and useful.