Instruction of Mathematics in Higher Education in the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine how mathematics instruction is carried out at the higher level of education in Covid-19 pandemic and what are the effects of these teaching activities. In the study, the case study model was used in which 30 lecturers with expertise in mathematics from 20 different universities in Turkey participated. In the study, the opinion form was used as a data collection tool. Descriptive analysis and content analysis methods were used in analyzing the data. It was found that before the pandemic, the use of technology in mathematics education by the lecturers was quite rare and at a basic level. In the pandemic process, it was observed that lecturers conducted their teaching synchronously or asynchronously with the traditional teaching approach, as before the pandemic, with distance education as the teacher-centered approach. It was understood that the main problems encountered during distance education were the difficulties encountered in teacher-student interaction and the inability to carry out assessment and evaluation activities in a healthy manner. It has been observed that the problems encountered especially in assessment and evaluation make it difficult to understand the actual impact of teaching mathematics during the pandemic on student learning. In fact, it was found that at the beginning of the pandemic, universities gave various instructions to their lecturers various trainings on distance education. However, these instructions were usually technical in scope and insufficient to overcome the difficulties encountered in the process, so that mathematics instruction was carried out with an understanding of ‘emergency distance education” rather than formal distance education. On the other hand, the experience of distance education gained during the pandemic process had a positive influence on the views of a significant proportion of the lecturers on the integration of technology in mathematics education.