A structural equation modelling in distance education teacher training classroom environments

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of teacher candidates about distance education teacher training classroom environments and to display the relationships among distance education classroom environment variables and course achievement. This study was designed according to relational survey research and employed structural equation modelling. In this sense, 12 hypotheses were constructed and tested. The study included 253 teacher candidates who enrolled in distance educational sciences courses at a state university in Turkey. Data were collected through the implementation of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) and analysed using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 20 to understand whether the recommended model fits the data. The results of the study revealed that instructor support predicted the achievement, perceived authentic learning and autonomy significantly; however, the other DELES variables were insignificant in predicting the achievement of teacher candidates. Moreover, perceived authentic learning significantly predicted personal relevancy and perceived personal relevancy significantly predicted perceived learner autonomy. Furthermore, perceived learner autonomy significantly predicted perceived active learning. Finally, active learning perceived by teacher candidates had a significant but weak effect on student interaction and collaboration. The results of the study were discussed in detail. The findings of this study might provide useful information for instructors to design distance education courses by sensitizing themselves to the positive and negative properties of distance education classroom environments.