Examination of science teacher candidates' views on distance education in terms of various variables

In developed and developing countries, education has always been an important concept in every aspect. This is because the basic point of mental and physical development is education. Depending on the rapid development of technological tools, the education system has also shown rapid and positive developments. A radical change in education has taken place with the development of technological tools such as radio, television, telephone, computer and internet. With the beginning of internet technology in the education system, an education service called "distance education" has emerged and the education system has become more comprehensive. In this study, the views of pre-service science teachers about distance education were determined by various variables (gender, graduated high school, place of residence, educational status of parents, devices used to participate in distance education courses, active use of the distance education system, participation in an orientation program before, and perception of distance education as an effective learning method) It is aimed to examine in terms of. The sample of this research consists of a total of 92 science teacher candidates, who are at the level of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades, studying at Fırat University, Faculty of Education, Department of Science. The survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. The data of the research were collected with a distance education satisfaction questionnaire and analyzed using arithmetic mean, standard deviation and non-parametric analysis techniques in the analysis of the obtained data. According to the results of the analysis, no significant difference was found between the gender, graduated high school, mother's education status, the devices used to participate in distance education courses and the views of teacher candidates about distance education. However, a significant difference was found between the place of residence, father's education status, being active in the distance education system, participating in an orientation program before, and perception of distance education as an effective learning method and the views of teacher candidates about distance. According to the analysis of open-ended questions, pre-service teachers expressed opinions about the positive aspects of distance education, such as access to information and course videos at the desired time and place, financial economy, time saving; In terms of the negative aspects of distance education, they expressed their opinions as insufficient interaction, inability to socialize, inefficient courses that require practice such as laboratories, and technical difficulties. The courses that teacher candidates wanted to take with distance education were verbal courses, elective courses, education courses and common courses taught in each department.