Lifelong learning tendencies of prospective recreation executives

This thesis summarizes a comprehensive research study that aims to examine the factors that influence recreation management students' lifelong learning dispositions. Learning plays a fundamental role in the personal and professional development of individuals, and this study provides an understanding of the wide range of factors that determine the learning dispositions of students studying in the field of recreation. The aim of the thesis is to determine the lifelong learning dispositions of undergraduate students studying in the department of recreation management and to determine the effect of demographic variables on lifelong learning dispositions. In this thesis study, which was designed as quantitative research, descriptive survey design and convenience sampling methods were used as sampling methods. The population of the research consists of Necmettin Erbakan University and Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University Recreation Management departments. The analysis of the data was carried out using the open source software "Jamovi" package program. The skewness kurtosis test was used to determine whether the data were normally distributed and it was determined that the data did not have a normal distribution. For this reason, the Mann-Whitney U test was performed for independent variables with two options, and the Kruskal Wallis test was performed for variables with more than two options. The findings reveal the effects of various factors on the lifelong learning tendencies of recreation management students. It was observed that the effect of variables such as gender, type of participation in recreational activities, type of high school graduated from, and time allocated per day on lifelong learning tendencies was not statistically significant. In addition, factors such as reading habits, university preference, grade level, academic achievement, family income status, participation in personal and vocational courses, choice of recreational activities, and time allocated for these activities were determined to be factors that significantly affect the lifelong learning tendencies of recreation management students. These findings emphasize the necessity of more specialized approaches to recreation management education and reveal the importance of considering these factors in future educational policies and programs. Keywords: Leisure education, Lifelong learning, Recreation