AN INVESTIGATION OF PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ LIFE SKILLS IN TERMS OF VARIOUS VARIABLES

Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether preservice teachers’ opinion about perspectives on life skills vary by gender, undergraduate program and grade level. It is a survey study. A total of 460preservice teachers from the preschool education and classroom education departments of the Educational Faculty of Afyon Kocatepe University constituted the participants. The Life Skills Scale developed by Bolat and Balaman (2017) was used to collect the data. The scale consists of 30 five-point Likert-type items. The scale has five dimensions: coping with stress and emotions, showing empathy and self-awareness, decision making and problem solving, creative and critical thinking, and communication and interpersonal relationships. Bolat and Balaman (2017) found a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .90 for the scale. This study also found a Cronbach's alpha internal consistency of .90 for its sample. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. The one-group Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to analyze the distribution of the data, and the coefficients of skewness were examined. Since the dataset had a normal distribution, parametric tests were used. The unpaired t-test was used to determine whether the preservice teachers’ perspectives on life skills vary by gender and undergraduate program. The one-way ANOVA test was used to determine whether their perspectives on life skills vary by grade level. The preservice teachers thought that they had the most creative and critical thinking skills. Compared to their male counterparts, the female preservice teachers had more positive perspectives about showing empathy and self-awareness. The preservice teachers’ ability to cope with stress and emotions decrease as their grade level increases. Article visualizations: