The Attitudes of Physical Education and Sports Teacher Trainees (The Ankara Example)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of students at departments of physical education teaching towards the courses they take, their friends, instructors and their departments. The population of the study comprises all of the junior and senior students (3rd and 4th year students) currently studying at physical education departments at Ankara University, Gazi University, Hacettepe University and Middle East Technical University, a total of 298 trainees. For the study, a Likert type attitude scale having 60 items and a validity coefficient of a : 0.92 which had previously been used by Zekai Pehlivan in 1996 during a study conducted on students at the Department of Physical Education and Sports at Fırat University was employed. The study reveals that senior year (fourth year) students have a more positive attitude towards all of the above when compared to junior year (third year) students. As a result, the attitude which prospective physical education and sports teachers have towards their courses, friends, instructors and departments have been found to be positive.