Social and Emotional Skills of Pre-School Children After Distance Learning From Teacher s Perspective

The preschool period includes sensitive years for the development of social and emotional skills. The acquisition of these skills begins in the family and continues systematically in schools. On the other hand, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, children have entered an emotionally challenging process and with the beginning of distance learning, they have been away from their social context. Therefore, skills that develop rapidly under the influence of socialization have been deprived of this support due to the intervening distance. The main purpose of this research is to examine the social and emotional skills of children from the perspective of the teacher when face-to-face learning is started again after the distance learning process in Turkey. In the research, teachers of children who attended kindergartens, who participated in distance learning and now continue face-to-face learning in the same class were studied. In the study, interviews were conducted with eight preschool teachers. The data were analyzed by content analysis. The results revealed that the distance learning context was evaluated by teachers as a context dominated by inefficiency and negative emotions due to reasons such as "not being able to concretize what was taught and compensate for the need for action". The face-to-face learning context, on the other hand, was evaluated by teachers as a structure in that positive emotions were experienced more frequently, effective time management was ensured, and productivity increased with immediate intervention in developing situations compared to distance learning. In addition, the findings show that negative behavioral changes such as children's difficulties in perceiving what is taught and following instructions, and difficulties in self-control were perceived by teachers. Teachers stated that they adapted to these changes by developing new regulations.