Investigation of the professional competence and empathy tendencies of physical education and sports teachers with respect to students with special needs

The aim of this research is to examine the professional competence and empathy tendencies of physical education and sports teachers regarding students with special needs. The universe of the research consists of physical education and sports teachers working in Batman province. The sample of the research consists of 230 physical education and sports teachers, who were sent to the study via Google Forms and participated voluntarily, out of 363 physical education and sports teachers in the 2023 - 2024 academic year. A descriptive scanning model was used in the research. The data of the study were collected with the "Professional Competency Scale of Physical Education and Sports Teachers for Students with Special Needs" developed by Yılmaz et al., (2022) and the "Toronto Empathy Scale" adapted into Turkish by Totan et al., (2012). The obtained data were transferred to SPSS 22.0 software program for statistical analysis. Frequency analysis, percentage analysis, arithmetic mean, independent variable t test, ANOVA analyzes and post hoc tests were used to analyze the data. Looking at the analysis results; Professional competence levels of physical education and sports teachers regarding students with special needs school level, have you received training about students with special needs, are there or were there students with special needs in your class and why are you interested in students with special needs a statistically significant difference was found according to the variable (p<.05). There was no statistically significant difference according to gender, age, education level, school type, professional years and income level (p>.05). A statistically significant difference was found in the empathy tendency levels of physical education and sports teachers according to the variables of gender, age, income level, whether there are students with special needs in your class, and why you are interested in students with special needs (p <.05). No statistically significant difference was detected according to the variables of education level, school type, school level, professional years and whether you received training about students with special needs (p>.05). As a result of the research, it was concluded that the total scores of physical education and sports teachers' professional competence and empathy tendency levels were high.