PRESERVICE SECONDARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ VIEWS ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE COVID-19 PROCESS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice secondary mathematics teachers’ views about distance education that was carried out during Covid-19 process. In this study, phenomenology design was used. The participants of the study were 148 preservice mathematics teachers enrolled in elementary mathematics teaching department of a state university in Turkey. The data were collected with a questionnaire consisting of three open-ended questions developed by the researchers. Content analysis was used in analyzing the data. As a result, the opinions of the preservice teachers regarding the advantages of distance education such as flexibility of time and place, easy access to information, economy, as well as disadvantages such as inefficiency, inequality, lack of communication, and desocialization have emerged. While they thought that general culture and vocational knowledge courses were suitable for distance education, they stated that the field courses were not. It is recommended that the universities should strengthen their distance education infrastructures to create a better distance education process.