Examination of Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences on Distance Education in the Covid-19 Pandemic Period: A Longitudinal Research

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal research was conducted in Girne American University, Faculty of Education during the pandemic process by means of a qualitative multiple case study with semi-structured questions through online forms with a purposefully selected study group of 143 undergraduates between 2020-2022 academic years. The two phase research had 75 participants in the first phase and 68 in the second one. The interview questions were first applied to a randomly selected pilot group consisted of 13 participants that are exempted from the research. Content analysis was utilized in the data set in order to have a deep understanding of the findings. Findings revealed that most of the students did not have an online education experience before, but their competency levels were stated to be positive and they are quite satisfied from the distance education applications. Internet quality is found to be the major obstacle, Zoom to be the most used platform. Evaluation and communication problems are found to be at the center of negative attitudes. Even if there are both positive and negative attitudes towards the future preferences, a combination of face to face and online sessions seem to be accepted by the participants.