Prospective teachers of physical educaiton sports awareness level and attitudes among mentallu retarded individial

The purpose of this study is to examine the awareness levels of physical education teacher candidates regarding the importance and impact of sports on individuals with mental disabilities and their attitudes towards these individuals. The study aims to increase awareness of the social inclusion of these individuals and the role of sports in the rehabilitation process by analyzing the knowledge levels, awareness and attitudes of physical education teacher candidates regarding the participation of individuals with mental disabilities in sports. Within the scope of the study, data was collected from teacher candidates using the survey technique, one of the quantitative research methods. The findings obtained show that the awareness levels of physical education teacher candidates regarding the importance of sports for individuals with mental disabilities should be increased and that more training is needed in this regard. The results of the study emphasize the importance of the role of teacher candidates in the integration of individuals with disabilities into society through sports and indicate the necessity of conducting awareness studies in this area. According to the results of this research, 52.9% of the participants showed an undecided and negative attitude in terms of the use of information sources regarding the sporting activities of mentally disabled individuals. This result shows that teacher candidates do not have sufficient knowledge about sports activities for mentally disabled individuals. In this context, it can be concluded that more training should be provided regarding sports activities for disabled individuals and the skills that these activities aim to provide to teacher candidates. Increasing disability awareness will enable future teachers to work more effectively with disabled individuals. When gender factors are examined in the study, it is seen that 6% of the female participants are more sensitive than men regarding attitudes towards sports and mentally disabled people. This finding is consistent with research suggesting that women are more likely to develop social responsibility and empathy. This result shows that the scale used in the research is a valid and reliable tool. Reliability analyzes show that the results obtained are consistent and that similar results are obtained when these data are repeated on similar groups. This increased the transferability of the study results to the general population of physical education teacher candidates. Therefore, although physical education teacher candidates do not have sufficient awareness about the importance of sports for mentally disabled people, it is possible that sports habits and direct interaction with disabled people have a positive effect on this awareness. For this reason, it is of great importance to include sports activities for disabled people more in teacher education and to raise awareness about this issue among teacher candidates. In addition, developing the habit of regular exercise is important for both one's own health and developing a positive attitude towards disabled individuals.