Effects of Sports on Communication Skills: A Research on Teacher Candidates

Abstract

In this study, the relationship between sports as well as different variances and communication skills of university students has been examined. The study involves 786 teacher candidates who participated in the summer school opened at Atatürk University, Kaz?m Karabekir Faculty of Education. Of all, 476 were females and 310 were males. They study in different departments and the average age of them was 22. As the means of gathering data, ‘Communication Skills Inventory’, developed by Ersanl? and Balc? (1998), was used (3). The t test and variance analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. The difference between the opinions of the groups was interpreted by taking the P 0.05 level of significance into consideration.

The results of this study show that there was a significant difference when the communication skills were compared with gender, conditions of doing sports and the kind of sport to be done as well as the weekly durations of doing sports and that sports has a positive effect on communication skills. Moreover, no significant difference were detected when the communication skills were compared with students’ ages and levels at which they get educated. Communication is vital for people’s daily lives and careers. Therefore, considering the effects that sports has on the development of communication skills, it has been suggested to get individuals to do sport activities during their university education, for it is supposed to contribute to the development of communication skills.

Keywords: Sports, Communication, Communication Skill, Teacher candidate.