Thematic content analysis of science lesson videos uploaded to YouTube platform in the Covid-19 era

Abstract

Students started to continue their education from online platforms when they could not receive face-to-face education due to Covid-19. So, various instructional videos have been shared on the YouTube platform by the teachers and education researchers. The study aimed to analyze the videos shared in the field of science education on the YouTube platform during the Covid-19 period. For this purpose, the keywords (“science lesson” and “secondary school science lesson”) were searched in the YouTube search engine and the videos taken by the teachers and shared during the pandemic period were examined. Thematic content analysis method was used in the research. The videos were analyzed according to the parameters of the shared date, the location of the teacher who shot the video, the grade level, the subject area, the method of the video, their suitability for the learning outcome and the compatibility of the content information with scientific knowledge. The following issues were revealed in the findings: Between 23 March and 15 May 2020, when distance education continued, there was a large number of video sharing. The number of videos in which no information was given that the teachers who shot videos worked in any institution was higher than the others. There were many videos shot for 8th graders. It was concluded that the videos were generally shot on living things and the subject area of life, the question-solving method was mostly used in the videos, and the experiment/activity was rarely included in the videos. It has been concluded that there are a large number of videos that are suitable for the relevant acquisition and that the content information is suitable for scientific knowledge. Necessary suggestions were expressed in line with the results obtained.