School belonging and happiness levels of pre-service teacher who placed to university with special talent and central exam system

In this study, it was aimed to determine the school belonging and happiness levels of pre-service teachers who entered the university with the special talent and central examination system, to determine the relationship between them and to examine them according to demographic variables. The sample group of the study consists of 393 4th year pre-service teachers with 295 female and 98 malewho studies in different departments at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University. In order to determine happiness levels in the study,the Oxford Happiness Scale and is a 6-point Likert-form with 29 items, which was adapted into Turkish by carrying out the necessary validity and reliability studies by Doğan and Sapmaz (2012), was used. Also in order to determine the levels of school belonging, a total of 18 items, developed by Goodenow (1993) and adapted into Turkish by Sarı (2011), and a 5-point Likert-type School Belonging Scale which has two sub-dimensions of school belonging and rejection were used in the study. The data was collected via e-mail adressess. SPSS statistical program was used in the analysis of the research data. In the analysis of the data, percentage and frequency tests, which are descriptive analysis types, and Kolmogrov Smirnov, One Way Anova, Independent Variables t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis tests and LSD (Least Significant Difference) multiple comparison test were used in the analysis of research problems, and the level of significance was p < 0.05. According to the findings obtained as a result of the study, there is no statistically significant difference between pre-service teachers' levels of sense of school belonging and their choice of university placement, mother's education level, father's education level and total family income income. But also it was concluded that there was a significant difference in favor of women between the level of sense of school belonging and the gender. It was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between the variables of gender, mother's education level, and father's education level according to happiness levels, and that there was a significant difference between the happiness level and the choice of university placement and total family income variables. As a result of the Spearman Brown Rank Differences Correlation analysis conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between pre-service teachers' sense of school belonging and their happiness levels, it was found that there was a positive and significant relationship (r=.406, p<.01) between the sense of school belonging and happiness. KEYWORDS: Belonging, School Belonging, Happiness, Pre-Service Teacher