Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
IRELT Innovational Research in ELT, cilt.6, sa.2, ss.70-86, 2025 (Hakemli Dergi)
Distance education (DE) emerged as an alternative within teacher education programs worldwide due to mandatory school closures during the recent pandemic. The question of whether it can be a strong mode of instruction for educational institutions and teacher training, however, remains open. There is a lack of research addressing which courses are best suited for online delivery and which are more appropriate for face-to-face instruction. The present study aims to fill this gap by examining pre-service English teachers’ views, informed by their experiences during two semesters of mandatory online education and addressed the following research question: Which courses in the ELT program do pre-service English teachers perceive as more suitable for distance education, and what are the observed trends across different years of study? The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional survey design conducted within an English language teacher education program at the Faculty of Education of a state university in Istanbul. Participants in their second, third, and fourth years were asked to review a list of 100 courses and indicate those they would prefer to take online. Frequency analyses showed that the pre-service teachers did not exhibit a strong preference for DE mode within the program. The most favored course for online delivery was selected by fewer than 39% of participants. Moreover, courses considered as having greater potential for DE tended to belong to the General Cultural Knowledge and Vocational Content Knowledge modules rather than the Field Knowledge module and compulsory courses in general. Preferences based on years of study are also reported. The findings suggest various implications to provide guidance for teacher education programs and curriculum designers in making informed decisions about the integration and optimization of online education.