Problems and solutions encountered in distance education practices according to geography teachers

The aim of this study is to present the problems experienced by geography teachers and solution proposals in line with their opinions in the process of implementing distance education. Qualitative research method was used in the study. The pattern of the study is the phenomenology pattern. The working group consisted of 29 geography teachers working in the Central District of Sivas Province, adhering to the principle of voluntary participation. In the study, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. Due to the epidemic in the data collection process, the interviews were made by phone and video calls; interviews are recorded. At the same time, notes were taken by the researcher during the interviews. The data were analyzed by content analysis method, which is one of the qualitative data analysis methods. Themes are created from the data obtained in this direction and common themes are listed. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the participants had the most application-oriented and hardware problems. In the problems with the application, students do not attend the course, they do not get a return, the student is difficult to follow. In addition, since the participants had to work from home, it was found that participants with children had more difficulty in this process and had problems in their homes. In the geography course, it was found that the participants had difficulty explaining the subjects of mathematical processes such as maps and local time. In contrast, it has been concluded that they process the subject of Nature and Man more easily. Participants were found to agree that distance education is as much of a disadvantage as the advantage of geography course. In the recommendations of the participant's solutions were obtained both for the content and for infrastructure, technique and application. Keywords: Distance education, Geography lesson, Qualitative research, Coronavirus pandemic