Folk Dances From Our Cultural Heritage: Attitudes of Physical Education and Sports Teacher Candidates

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigtate the attitudes of physical education (PE) teacher candidates studying at Akdeniz University, Faculty of Sport Sciences towards folk dance lesson. A total of 140 female and 160 male students at Akdeniz University Faculty of Sport Sciences participated in the research. In particular, a total of 92 students except from the Depertment of Physical Education and Sports stated that they have received educational formation training. Folk Dance Lesson Attitude Scale for Physical Education Teacher Candidates developed by Turan (2015) and consisting of 13 items was used to measure the attitudes of PE teacher candidates towards the folk dance lesson. In the statistical analyses, descriptive statistics (frequency (f), percentage (%)) and inferential statistics T-Test and ANOVA tests were used. SPSS 22.0 statistical program was used, and the statistical significance level was set at p<0.05 in all evaluations. A statistically significant difference was found between the attitudes of the teacher candidates participating in the research towards the folk dance lesson according to the gender variable in favor of female students. According to the variable of experience in the folk dance course participation of the pre-service teachers, a statistically significant difference was determined between their attitudes towards the folk dance course in favor of the students who had previous course experience. As a result of the examination of the difference between the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the folk dance lesson according to the department variable, there was a statistically significant difference between the students in the Department of PE and Sports and the Department of Coaching Education. This difference was noted in favor of the students in the Department of PE and Sports..