Examination of the communication skills of sports sciences faculty students with and without rhythm education and dance lessons

The aim of this research is to examine the communication skills of the students of the faculty of sports sciences who take rhythm education and dance lessons and those who do not. At the same time, the communication skills of the participants were compared according to their gender, age, monthly income level, department, class, and their answers to the question "Is there anyone in the family interested in dance?" The data of the research consisted of students who received and did not receive Rhythm Education and Dance Education at Ege University Faculty of Sport Sciences and Fırat University Faculty of Sport Sciences in Izmir. The sample group of the research consisted of the students of the sports management and teaching department, who took rhythm education and dance lessons or not, at the same university. Personal information form and the 'communication skills scale' developed by Scale Korkut Owen and Bugay (2014) were used as data collection tools of this research. SPSS 28.0 package program was used in the analysis of all data of the research. In the study, Shapiro-Wilk test was applied to measure whether the data showed a normal distribution. In the analysis of the data that did not show normal distribution in the study; Mann Whitney U test was used to compare paired groups, and Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare three or more groups. Spearman test was applied to measure the relationship between the scales. The communication principles and basic skills scores, self-expression scores, willingness to communicate, active listening and non-verbal communication scores of the participants who took rhythm training and dance lessons were higher than those who did not. At the same time, the general communication skills scores of the participants who took rhythm training and dance lessons were higher than those who did not. Keywords: Dance, Rhythm, Rhythm Education, Dance Education, Communication Skills.