Exploring Teacher and Student Perspectives on Secondary School Teachers’ Digital Teaching Skills in Distance Education (DTSDE)

The principal objective of this study is to examine the needs of secondary school teachers in terms of digital teaching skills in distance education (DTSDE), with a particular focus on teacher and student perspectives. We carried out this phenomenological study with 12 secondary school teachers and 12 secondary school students, selected using maximum variation sampling, in Istanbul in the 2023-2024 academic year. While teachers were recruited for semi-structured interviews, we held focus group interviews with students. We used the descriptive analysis technique and expressed the findings as codes, categories, and themes. Given the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu), codes elicited from participants were clustered under the following categories: professional participation, digital resources, teaching-learning processes, measurement-evaluation, student empowerment, and supporting/enhancing students’ digital competencies. These categories were then combined under the theme of DTSDE. According to the research results, it was seen that teachers and students expressed many opinions regarding the DTSDE needs of secondary school teachers. Upon examination of the data from the perspective of the participants, it becomes evident that a number of key codes emerge, including the view that secondary school teachers should receive in-service training for DTSDE and have the ability to select, create, and edit digital teaching content, to engage in practical activities, to facilitate student-teacher communication, to adopt robust time management skills, to adjust their tone of voice, and to prepare valid and reliable exams. We believe that our findings will considerably inform the further research and policy agendas of relevant stakeholders.