The examine the decision-making and assertiveness levels of physical education teachers and other branch teachers in terms of some variables

The aim of this study is to examine the decision-making and assertiveness levels of physical education teachers and other branch teachers in terms of some variables. Participants of the study were totally 311 teachers 150 of whom were physical education teachers and 161 other branch teachers working at various primary, secondary and high schools in Malatya city center. The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire was used to identify decision-making styles of participant teachers, and the Rathus Assertiveness Inventory was used to identify assertiveness levels of teachers. SPSS 22.0 for Windows program was used in descriptive statistical analysis (frequency analysis), One Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H tests were used to analyze the data collected in the study. At the end of the study, decision making styles of participant teachers in terms of reasons for choosing teaching as a profession, having financial troubles, and being happy with the students of the schools they worked for revealed significant differences (p<0.05). On the other hand, as for branches of teachers, age groups, genders, marital statuses, seniority, education levels, school types they were working (primary, secondary, high school), socio-economic conditions of the schools, relationship with colleagues, and professional satisfaction level decision-making styles, there were no significant difference (p>0.05). Only in terms of their reasons for choosing teaching as a profession showed significant difference in assertiveness levels (p<0.05), however, age, gender, marital status, seniority, education level, school type they worked in, socio-economic level of the schools they worked in, being happy with the students of the school they worked in, financial troubles and professional satisfaction levels were not observed to be determinant factors on assertiveness levels (p>0.05). In conclusion, demographic characteristics handled in the study might be accepted as not determinant enough to evaluate assertiveness levels and decision-making styles of teachers in general. However, new studies focusing on the effects of demographic characteristics on decision-making styles and assertiveness levels of teachers are needed to evaluate these effects better. Key Words: Physical education, Teaching profession, Assertiveness, Decision-making styles.