Investigation of lifelong learning tendencies and self-directed learning skills of primary school teacher candidates in the emergency distance education process

In December 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were temporarily suspended almost all over the world, and with this, schools switched to the distance education process so that students can continue their education. This rapid transition has turned into an obligation for every educator and student with or without distance education experience to teach or take courses with the distance education method. In this process, students are responsible for their own learning and plan, monitor and evaluate their learning processes. Allowing students to experience responsibility for their learning along with distance education helps them gain self-directed learning skills and learn for life as free learners. In this direction, it is aimed to investigation the lifelong learning tendencies and self-directed learning skills of primary school teacher candidates in the emergency distance education process. The research was designed as an explanatory sequential design, one of the mixed research designs used with quantitative and qualitative methods. Data on the quantitative dimension of the study were collected by applying the pre-test and post-test to the participants at the beginning and end of the education year. Data on the qualitative dimension were collected using a semi-structured interview form at the end of the implementation. The research was carried out with a total of 224 primary school teacher candidates, first, second, third and fourth grade, studying at Kastamonu University, Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education in the fall and spring semester of 2020-2021 academic year. In the study, data were collected with different data collection tools, such as "Lifelong Learning Tendency Scale", "Self-Directed Learning Skills Scale" and a semi-structured interview form in order to determine the opinions of candidates primary school teachers in the distance education process. When the general evaluation of the research findings was made, it was concluded that the lifelong learning tendencies and self-directed learning skills post-test average scores of the primary school teacher candidates in the distance education process were higher than the pre-test average scores, but there was no statistically significant difference. A significant difference was found in the self-monitoring dimension, which is the sub-dimension of the self-directed learning skills scale, and it was concluded that the distance education process improved the self-monitoring skills of the primary school teacher candidates. In addition, when the opinions of the primary school teacher candidates, who are the research participants, about distance education were examined, it was concluded that they had negative views on lifelong learning and self-learning in this process. In addition to these results, the primary school teacher candidates stated that the distance education process has benefits such as being able to find time for themselves, having easy access to personal and professional development programs, and determining their own learning needs. However, they stated that they had difficulties such as low interaction in learning environments, not being able to plan their own learning processes and not being able to provide self-control.