Social Studies Teacher Candidates’ Views on Blended Learning Process

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present the views of social studies teacher candidates about the blended learning process in the context of face-to-face and distance education. The study adopted a case study design. The study determined participants using the criterion sampling. The criteria in selecting participants was that teacher candidates should have experience in face-to-face education, online education, and blended learning. The participants consisted of 70 teacher candidates studying in the third and fourth year of the Social Studies Education Department of a state university in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey during the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. 42 of the participants were female and 28 were male. An open-ended questionnaire with nine questions was used as a data collection tool. The data were collected in an electronic environment and analyzed by content analysis. It was concluded from the study that blended learning can offer solutions to the problems arising from the characteristics of face-to-face education and distance education, blended learning practices have not yet been implemented in the quality specified in the theoretical framework, teacher candidates have mostly negative opinions about distance education practices, while mostly positive opinions about face-to-face education come to the fore.