Investigation of communication skills and empathy levels of İnonu University Physical Education and Sports students

Aim: The universe of the research consists of 943 students from İnönü University Physical Education and Sports School and 684 students from the University. These students were selected through "easy sampling method that is not based on probability". Material and Method: The universe of the study consisted of 943 students attending İnönü University Physical Education and Sports College and 684 students. The "Communication Skills Evaluation Scale" developed by Korkut (1996) and the "Empathic Tendency Scale" developed by Dökmen (1988) were used in the research. The research is a descriptive study by Karasar (2007) in "screening model" which is defined as "research approach". Descriptive statistics such as frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, percentage are used in the analysis of the study data. Normal distribution fitness of the data was evaluated by skewness and kurtosis values and homogeneity by Levene test. Independent groups t-test and one-way ANOVA tests were used for parametric tests. Correlation analysis was performed to analyze relations with each other. Significance level was chosen as p <0.05 in statistical analyzes. Results: It was found that there was a statistically significant difference between communication skill perceptions and empathic tendency scale mean scores of the students' communication skill perception and empathy levels, age, gender, reading level, grade level and sport year variables (p < .05). It was found that the sport branch variable did not cause a statistically significant difference on the average of communication skill evaluation scale and empathic tendency scale point scores (p> .05). Conclusion: There was a significant difference between students' communication skills and empathy levels. Moreover, there was a positive positive correlation between students' communication skills and empathic tendencies. Key Words: Communication Skill, Empathy Level, Physical Education, Sport.