Difficulties encountered by social studies teachers in the process of distance education

The reason for choosing this topic as a master's thesis; is to reveal to difficulties that teachers faced with during the distance education process and to offer solutions to these difficulties and problems. Because teachers, who are the most important element of distance education, experienced various difficulties and problems; during the proces educational activities colud not be carried out as desired. This research was carried out to be useful for solving the problems they encountered in education. The study group of the research consists of Social Studies Teachers working in secondary schools in Amasya province. According to research data; it is possible that social studies teachers have encountered many difficulties and problems in the distance education process, especially difficulties arising from the system, students, teachers, parents, difficulties in using course-materials, difficulties arising from method-technical methods, difficulties arising from the These difficulties negatively affect teachers' productivity in lessons. Eliminating the difficulties faced by teachers, who are one of the most important stakeholders of education and training activities, and finding solutions to their problems will increase the quality of education. In this thesis study, qualitative research method was applied and it was designed as a phenomenology research. The study group in which the research was applied was selected with homogeneous sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods, and among the data collection techniques, semi-structured interview form and open-ended questionnaire were used data collection techniques in the research. Before the pre-research interview form was prepared, the resources related to the subject were examined and 10 questions were determined by taking the opinions of the field experts was asked to the participants. For the data analysis, NVivo 9 package program was used. With the spread of the covid-19 epidemic all over the world, it has become a pandemic and has had negative effects on humanity in various fields. It is possible to see these effects in many fields, from economy to politics, social and cultural fields, especially in the field of education. Educational activities that cannot be done face-to-face have been replaced by distance education activities. The beginning of the distance education process brought along some difficulties. Therefore, teachers, who are the most important stakeholders of this process, have encountered some difficulties that will affect success, as it is understood from the findings of the research. Systemic difficulties are at the forefront of these difficulties. Social Studies Teachers faced with internet access problems and internet infrastructure deficiencies in distance education. Homes without internet have often been the most prone to internet access problems. Moreaver, deficiencies or inadequacies in distance education devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones which are used by both teachers and students, negatively affected the success of the process. On the other hand, the lack of sufficient distance education programs that can be a good alternative, the problems arising from EBA, the method-technical problems and the difficulties encountered in assessment and evaluation appear as other difficulties affecting the process. With this study, it is aimed to present scientific data that will increase the efficiency and quality of the lessons by revealing the difficulties they face socially during the pandemic period. For this purpose, the difficulties faced by Social Studies teachers in teaching distance education in the distance education process and the effects of these difficulties on education and training were examined.