Meeting the social skills of children receiving pre-schooleducation remotely and face-to-face during the pandemic

The aim of this study is to compare the social skills of children who receive distance and face-to-face preschool education. In addition, the opinions of teachers who provide distance and face-to-face preschool education and of parents of children who receive distance preschool education about the implementation process were examined. Explanatory sequential mixed design, one of the mixed design techniques in which quantitative and qualitative data collection methods are used together, was used in the study. The quantitative working group of the research consists of 42 children who receive face-to-face and distance preschool education from two independent kindergartens in Cizre District of Şırnak province in the 2020-2021 academic year. The qualitative working group consists of 10 teachers and 20 members of the families of children who receive distance preschool education. In the research, the children received education in their normal process for a period (twelve weeks), and then the data were collected with the Social Skills Assessment Scale prepared by Avcıoğlu (2007) for the ages of 4-6. The quantitative data collected in the context of the sub-problems of the research; Shapiro-Wilk Normal Distribution Test, ttest was performed. Interview questions prepared by researchers to collect qualitative data were submitted to the opinion of academicians who are experts in the field, and after they were finalized, opinions were taken first from families and then from teachers by means of zoom. Descriptive and content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. As a result of the statistical processes conducted for the quantitative dimension of the study, when the total social skill scores of the children who received distance and face-to-face preschool education were compared, the total social skill scores of the children who received face-to-face education were found to be higher. When looking at the effect size, it was found that this effect was large. '' Skills to Control Anger Behaviors and Adapt to Changes '', '' Peer Pressure Coping Skills '', '' Verbal Explanation Skills '', '' Self-Control Skills '', '' Purpose-Setting Skills '', While the social skill scores of the children who received face-to-face pre-school education were higher within the sub-dimensions of "Listening Skills Skills for Completing Tasks" and "Skills for Accepting Results", there was no difference in the "Interpersonal Skills" sub-dimension. As a result of the descriptive analysis of the interviews made for the qualitative dimension of the study, the teachers interviewed stated that the children were more active and more eager to the activities and more interactive with their friends during the face-toface education process. In addition, it was determined that teachers included more individual activities in this process, included studies such as drama and experiments that would support children's social skills, gave them the opportunity to learn by doing and living, and became a model. According to the results obtained from the teachers' opinions regarding the distance education process, it was determined that children's dependence on the mother increased, their ability to act independently decreased, introversion, longing for friends / school, and anxiety and stress in children increased. In addition, regarding the social development and relationships of children in the distance education process, teachers stated that children's peers are very few, their social needs are not met adequately, and communication is limited to adults at home. The results obtained from interviews with the families of children receiving distance preschool education; Families feel inadequate, together with this, the role of the family in the educational activities of the child has increased and there are problems in communication with their children. Families are angry with children in this process, Families stated that their children were angry and aggressive in this process, they did not want to participate in activities, and that they miss their school, friends and teachers. Key Words: Distance Education, Face-to-Face Education, Pandemic, Social Development, Preschool Education