During Covid-19 pandemic period, evaluation of teaching English experiences with distance education at high school level

The purpose of this study is to examine in depth the experiences of school administrators, students and teachers in teaching English at high school level, conducted with distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic period. In the study, the case study pattern of the qualitative research model was used. The sampling technique chosen to reflect different experiences from different types of schools is the maximum variety of purposeful sampling methods. The participants of this research are 9-11 grade students who take distance education English lessons in all types of high schools in a city center in the Western Black Sea region, an English teacher from each institution, and an administrator from each institution. In the research, individual interviews were conducted with students, teachers and administrators using semi-structured interview forms; reflective diaries were collected from students. The data were analyzed by content analysis. As a result of the research, it was revealed that administrators, teachers and students made positive and mostly negative evaluations about the process. Positive experiences are evaluated such as teachers' positive influence on the process with their innovativeness and mastery of their fields, the fact that the structure of English is suitable for distance education, etc. by administators; distance education offers personal development opportunities, access to various online resources, etc. by teachers; easy access to the lessons, using supportive materials, and English being the most suitable lesson for the face-to-face lesson format, etc. by students.Administrators and teachers have evaluated that distance education eliminates the time and educational environment limits of distance education; Teachers and students positively evaluated the ability of students with social phobia to attend classes in distance education. Negative experiences are evaluated such as lack of information about the process, thinking that it is not efficient, the best of the worst process, etc. by the administrators; lack of interaction, disadvantaged process etc. by the teachers; It was evaluated with expressions such as having many distracting factors, not suitable for education at home and being exhausting in distance education, etc. by students. The situations that administrators, teachers and students evaluated negatively; infrastructure, hardware and technical problems, the sudden changing decisions of the ministry and the difficulty of evaluation in the digital environment. Administrators assigned some meanings for the distance education process like requiring self-control, teachers; mechanical environment, students; loneliness as negative and interesting and fun as positive meanings. While managers make their education choices mostly face-to-face, hybrid education depending on the condition; hybrid education if the students are willing and if the appropriate conditions are provided; On the other hand, students preferred face-to-face education for interaction, distance education for comfort and exam preparation. According to the results obtained, suggestions were made about making further distance or emergency distance education practices more qualified, solving the problems that were revealed at the end of this research affecting education and new researches.