PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER CANDIDATES’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS COMMUNITY SERVICE COURSE

The aim of this study is to determine how physical education teacher candidates in Physical Education and Sports Higher Schools in different universities perceive the Community Service Course and to find out whether their perceptions change depending on several variables. The population of the study is composed of 146 fourth-year teacher candidate students who take the community service course in Physical Education and Sports Higher Schools in Ahi Evran, Aksaray, Kastamonu and In nü Universities in 2011-2012 academic year. The data is collected through “Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions towards Community Service Course Scale” developed by Elma et al. (2010), and the alpha reliability coefficient of the scale is .88. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, t-test and one-way analysis of variance are applied on the data collected. SPSS 15 statistical package is used to analyse the obtained data in computer environment and a significance level of 0.05 is taken into consideration for relationships and differences between variables. According to the physical education teacher candidates’ average points on the scale; it is observed that their perception towards the course is positive. According to the analysis of study results in terms of the independent variables of the study, there is a significant relationship in the sub-dimension of personal development of teacher candidates according to their universities. However, according to the analysis in terms of the variables of gender and membership to non-governmental organisations, no significant relationship is found in any sub dimension (P > 0.05).