An Analysis of Primary and Secondary School Students' Perceptions and Emotions Regarding Distance Education in the COVID-19 Process

Within the scope of the project, it is aimed to reveal the views and feelings of primary, secondary and high school students in public and private schools, who are experiencing distance learning for the first time in their lives, due to the suspension of face-to-face education in schools throughout the country during the COVID-19 Pandemic process. According to the research findings, the rate of students who stated that they were able to learn in the online teaching process is only 36.4%. 61.1% of the students stated that they learned better in face-to-face lessons at school than online lessons from the screen. Significant differences were observed between the learning perceptions of students who regularly attend online courses and those who do not. While 47.8% of the students who regularly follow the courses online during the COVID-19 period stated that they learned online, this rate drops to 2.2% for the students who sometimes attend the classes and sometimes do not. It was observed that the feelings of pleasure and boredom were quite high, the feeling of anxiety had a moderate effect on the learning perceptions of the students, and the effect of the feeling of loneliness was very limited. During the pandemic process, the main reason why the lessons are persistently tried to be continued, even from a distance, is to continue the "learning" process. However, only 36.4% of the students stated that they were able to learn in the online teaching process. This rate shows a serious decrease from primary school to high school. Continuing the "learning" process is not a process that can be achieved without considering the feelings of the students. The results based on the findings of the study also showed that the "perception of learning" differs with "emotions". When the students' feelings of "Pleasure, Anxiety, Loneliness and Boredom" were analyzed according to their learning perceptions, it was determined that the students enjoyed the process as they learned. For this reason, it should be ensured that students enjoy the process in the distance education process. Ensuring enjoyment can only be achieved with the active participation of the student in the process.