Investigation of teacher candidates' views on distance education

In the study, it was aimed to determine elementary school teacher candidates' perceptions about the remote distance education held due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The participants consisted of 40 teacher candidates (10 freshmen, 10 sophomore, 19 junior and 10 senior) at Firat University. The data was collected during the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. In this phenomenological qualitative study, case study model was employed. A criterion sampling method was used for participant selection. The criterion was that teacher candidates had to complete at least 50% of course activities during the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. With this criterion, it was aimed to conduct the study with experienced teacher candidates. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The questions asked during the interviews were prepared by the researcher based on an extent literature review. According to the results, teacher candidates reported that synchronous online lectures allowed them to actively participate and interact with the others. However, they complained about the teaching methods the instructors employed. They stated that direct instruction in online settings forces students to be inactive during lessons. They suggested that instructors must employ different teaching methods that trigger students' active participation. Another critical finding is that the teacher candidates benefited from the recordings for asynchronous lessons. These shared videos allowed teacher candidates to watch them at any time. However, they also criticized instructors' teaching methods for those recordings, which were accepted as boring teaching methods by the candidates. Most of the candidates stated that the resources shared by the instructor were sufficient and explanatory. In terms of measurement and evaluation, the candidates stated that homework given by the instructor contributed to their development. On the other hand, the workload due to the number of homework and the time limitations caused the candidates to become over-stressed. Another finding is related to the interaction. It was concluded that half of the pre-service teachers were satisfied with the communication established with the instructors, while the other half were not satisfied. The last finding is that while many candidates encountered technical issues due to the Internet. According to the findings of the study, recommendations were discussed.