Investigation of the problem solving skills of students at the Faculty of Sports Sciences

The aim of this study is to reveal the problem-solving skills of the students studying at the faculty of sports sciences. The model of this research is a descriptive study carried out as a survey model. The study population of this research consists of undergraduate students studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Sports Sciences in the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample of the study consists of 300 undergraduate students studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Sport Sciences, studying in Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Sports Management, Coaching Education and Recreation departments, determined by random method. Personal information form prepared by the researcher and Problem Solving Skills Scale developed by Heppner and Petersen (1982) were used as data collection tools in this study. In the study, firstly, the distribution of the data was examined. Kolmogorov Smirnov test was applied to test whether the data obtained from the study group showed normal distribution. As a result of the Kolmogorov smirnov test, it was concluded that the data were not normally distributed. For this reason, non-parametric tests were used in the study. Mann Whitney U test, which is a non-parametric method, was used to compare the means of two independent groups in a distribution that did not show normal distribution. The Kruskal Wallis test, which is a non-parametric method used to test the significance of the difference between the means of three or more groups in groups that did not show normal distribution, was used. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient of the Problem Solving Inventory used in the study was calculated as 0.81. According to the results obtained from the findings of the study, no statistically significant difference was found between the problem-solving skills of the students studying at the faculty of sports sciences, gender and the variables of the sports branch of interest (p>0.05). There were statistically significant differences between problem solving skills and variables of age, department and year of sport. Keywords: Problem, Problem solving, Problem solving skill.