Social Studies and Geography Teacher Candidates' Views on Coronavirus (COVID 19) and Online Education Process

Abstract

The novel coronavirus, COVID-19 was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), and following the rapid increase in the number of cases diagnosed with COVID-19 in Turkey, all universities started to carry out formal theoretical courses using online education methods. It is important to take undergraduate students' thoughts about this process into consideration, together with how they perceive the process and their thoughts about online education. The purpose of taking such thoughts in to consideration is to improve online education processes from the perspective of the student stakeholder and to improve the quality of online education if this epidemic gets longer. The aim of this study is to determine the views of Social Studies and Geography teacher candidates about COVID-19 and online education processes. To do so, a qualitative research method was used. The research working group, in the school year 2019-2020, were those studying to be Social Studies and Geography teachers at a Faculty of Education in a Turkish university. A total of 37 teacher candidates participated in the study and a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions developed by the researcher was used to obtain their views. A content analysis process was used to analyse the data. According to the findings from the study, teacher candidates stated they were more affected by this process because they were in their final year of study. They explained the reason for this situation as being related to their internship being incomplete and their dreams of graduation being negatively affected. Furthermore, the lack of adequate internet access and connection problems experienced amongst the teacher-candidates had a negative impact on their experience of online education procesess. Therefore, according to the views of teacher-candidates. the process of considering the services, systems and infrastructure offered by the university needs to occur for effective online education processes to be developed. For example, providing training to Faculty members and providing facilities such as computers to minimize technical problems and solve problems related to lack of access. It is recommended that universities should improve their infrastructure and plan to train lecturers and teachers for online education processes. To do so will benefit both the experience of, and minimize concerns about, online education processes.