An Examination of Pre-Service Teachers' Metaphorical Perceptions about Turkish Language Lessons Taught through Distance Education

Abstract

This study aims to determine the mental images created by pre-service teachers regarding Turkish lessons taught within the framework of four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) depending on the distance education practices carried out during the COVID-19 epidemic. In this study, phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used. Criterion sampling, which is one of the purposive sampling methods, was used to determine the sampling method of the research. The study group of the research consists of 90 teacher candidates, 78 women and 12 men, who participated in the research voluntarily. Pre-service teachers' views on “Turkish lessons taught in the distance education process” were determined through metaphors. In this context, pre-service teachers “Turkish lessons in the distance education process… like/similar; because…” They were asked to fill in the open-ended question form. Content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the obtained data. The general findings of the research are 80 different metaphors related to the Turkish lesson of the teacher candidates participating in the research, and these metaphors were collected in 10 different categories. As a result of the analysis of the findings obtained from the research, it was determined that the pre-service teachers explained Turkish lessons with metaphors that could be described as positive for them, but they also produced some negative metaphors. Especially in the distance education process, it has been determined that negative metaphors are produced due to the problems related to application, communication, interaction, lack of motivation and technological infrastructure arising from systemic problems.