Examination of the Concept of School Climate from the Perspective of Physical Education and Sports Teacher Candidates

Abstract

School climate, which is the sum of behaviors in a school, is also defined as the character of the school. A school’s climate has a significant impact on the quality of education, and on student success or failure. From this point of view, this study aims to examine the school climate from the perspectives of physical education and sports teacher candidates. To this end, the "School Climate Scale for University Students", developed by Ali R. Terzi, was applied to 303 physical education and sports teaching department students with three sub-factors. The data obtained were first subjected to a structure analysis and then to the reliability validity test, and the validity of the scale was determined. According to the type of variables, independent groups t-tests, one-way analysis of variance tests, post hoc tests, or effect size (Eta-square) tests were applied. While the answers given by the teacher candidates did not differ according to gender, a significant difference was found according to the grade they were studying in (in favor of first and fourth year students).