Investigation of distance mathematics education in terms of efficiency and problems encountered in the Covid 19 process

New educational approaches have emerged in the changing world with the effect of technological developments. One of these education approaches is distance education. However, distance education was urgently switched to distance education during the Covid 19 pandemic process. Researchers think that distance learning alternatives will increase in the future and distance education will become widespread. In this context, it has become important to evaluate the mathematics education carried out during the Covid 19 pandemic process, to examine the efficiency, to identify the problems encountered in the process, and to evaluate the opinions of students and teachers about the education process. In this study; it was aimed to determine how mathematics teaching and learning took place during distance education at the primary education level during Covid 19 in our country, the problems encountered by mathematics teachers and students, and the opinions of students and teachers about this process. The case study method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. It is aimed to investigate distance mathematics education in depth with the case study method. The study group was determined by appropriate sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods. Interviews were conducted with volunteer participants through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The data of the study were collected by recording the interviews and transcribing the recordings. Interviews were conducted by reaching 40 students attending 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades in the 2020-2021 academic year and 20 secondary school mathematics teachers who provided distance mathematics education in this process. The data obtained as a result of the research revealed that hardware deficiencies, connection problems and technical problems were encountered in distance education; interaction in distance education was insufficient, students could not actively participate in the lessons; students had difficulty in paying attention in the home environment and the focusing time was short. In addition to these general results, it was concluded that mathematics is structurally difficult to learn-teach with distance education, problems are encountered in writing mathematical expressions, teachers need training for teaching mathematics at a distance, students can learn at the beginning level in mathematics course and learning losses occur, teachers and students do not find distance mathematics education efficient. It was concluded that students' self-regulation skills were effective in their learning, that efficiency could be increased by increasing interaction in the course, students fulfilling their learning responsibilities and family support. Keywords: Distance Learning Barriers, Distance Mathematics Education, Efficiency in Distance Education, Emergency Distance Education.