TEACHER CANDIDATES’ EXPERIENCE OFDISTANCE EDUCATION: A CASE OFEREGLI

Abstract

The study aimed to obtainthe views of prospective teachers about the distance education practicesconducted due to COVID-19 pandemic in their faculty. The study covered the period of 23 March 2020 and 29 May 2020,at EregliFacultyofEducation,in Necmettin Erbakan University, Turkey. The study adopted the document analysis method among the qualitative researchpatterns. The participants of the study comprised 192prospective teachers at EregliFaculty of Education whoattendedthe courses carried out viadistance education on the specified datesabove.The participants were selected using convenience sampling method and on voluntary basis. The data were collected via anopen-ended questionnaire form developed by the researcher. The form was composed of 12 open-endedquestions. The data were analysedthroughcontent analysismethod. In the data analysis process, the written statements of the participants were examined in accordance withthe purpose of the research, then they were codedand the themes were created. The results revealed that “watching the courseagain”, “not spending time to go to school” and “evaluating over homework instead of exam” were the positive aspects; and "hardware and access difficulties", "failure to create a warm classroom environment" and "the utilized program’s not allowing interaction" were the negative aspects of the distance education practices in their context.