A study on the reflections of the COVID-19 pandemic period on the primary teacher education process through the opinions of acedemicians and teacher candidates

In the face of the corona epidemic, which affects the whole world, countries try to protect their citizens from this disease by taking precautions in terms of health, while education and economy are among the most affected sectors in this process. In the pandemic process, all countries have been affected by various measures, such as education, health, economics, etc. has applied to new measures and practices in order to prevent the activities from being disrupted. In this process, distance education has been started in all education levels in the field of education. Although there are programs carried out with distance education from time to time, it is a first in Türkiye with its implementation in all education levels. Although there are problems from time to time due to the distance education application being the first, it can be said that it fills an important gap in eliminating the education gap that may arise in the field of education during the pandemic process. In this study, it was thought that it would contribute to the newly emerging literature in this field, in terms of revealing the effects of the pandemic process on prospective classroom teachers. In this context, qualitative analysis was carried out by forming a study group of prospective classroom teachers and academicians who were educated in Konya Necmettin Erbakan University Ahmet KeleĢoğlu Faculty of Education. As a result of the research conducted in this direction; When the views of the primary school teacher candidates on the quality of distance education and the use and adequacy of technology during the pandemic were examined, it was determined that the lessons were generally productive and positive opinions were higher than negative opinions in the use and accessibility of technological materials. In addition, it was determined that negative opinions were higher than positive opinions in terms of material use and proficiency. When the opinions of the academicians on the quality of distance education received by the primary school teacher candidates during the pandemic were examined, it was determined that their positive and negative opinions were close to each other. However, when the evaluations are examined, although there are certain deficiencies in the initial process, the deficiencies in the distance education process have been eliminated over time and it has been tried to be made more successful. Keywords: Pandemic, Distance Education, Academics, Teacher Candidates