Teaching practicum courses in COVID-19 pandemic period: Example of preschool teaching undergraduate program

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the results of lecturing the Teaching Practicum I and II courses included within the curriculum of the final year of Preschool Teaching/Education undergraduate programs of various universities in Türkiye through distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic period according to experiences and viewpoints of preservice teachers. The research is a phenomenological study among qualitative research designs. The study group is comprised of 93 preservice teachers in the final year of the 2020-2021 education year who receive their teaching practice lectures through distance education. The results show that although the pandemic period has some positive effects on the personal lives of preservice teachers, the negative effects of this process are more distinct. Almost all of the participants mentioned that they performed online practices with preschool children, and more than half of them mentioned that they had difficulty performing practice lessons. Results concerning the questions about the knowledge of field and profession showed that preservice teachers considered their level of competence for all items in the pandemic period to be a middle level; and that they would have had much higher levels of competence if the pandemic period did not exist.