Examining the relationship between physical education teacher candidates' attitudes towards school experience course and career preferences

This research was conducted to examine the relationship between the attitudes of 3rd and 4th-year students toward the school experience course and their career preferences. The participants are students from the Faculty of Sports Sciences at Bingöl University, studying in the departments of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Sports Management, Coaching Education, and Recreation, who are eligible to receive pedagogical formation training and are attending the school experience courses. A total of 177 individuals participated in the study on a voluntary basis. The data were collected through a personal information form, the 'Attitude Towards School Experience Courses' scale developed by Kılınç and Salman (2007), and the 'Career Decision' scale developed by Yusupu (2015). Descriptive statistics, including arithmetic mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage distributions, were presented to provide insights into demographic information and responses to other group-related questions. To determine the relationship between participants' attitudes toward the school experience course and their career decisions, a correlation test was conducted. In addition, Independent Sample T-tests and One-Way Anova tests were used to analyze the relationships between these levels and some demographic variables. Furthermore, regression analysis was utilized to comprehensively examine the relationships between variables. The data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics 22 software. Results were evaluated at a 95% confidence interval with significance at p<0.05. The findings revealed no statistically significant differences among groups concerning the variables of career decisions and attitudes toward the school experience courses based on the department of study, facility, sports equipment, number of teachers, teacher interest, active participation in classes, and attendance requirements. A positive significant relationship was found between participants' attitudes toward the school experience courses and their career decision levels.