Examining the relationship between tendency of reflective thinking and reflection abilities of physical education and sports teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between tendency of reflective thinking and reflection abilities of physical education and sports teachers and find out whether there was a significant difference regarding gender and job experience. The importance of the study is that the results of the scale applied on the physical education and sports teachers will be an example for other studies and provide support on the point of the necessity that physical education and sports teachers should reflect their reflective thinking and reflection abilities on education. Relational screening model that is one of the descriptive screening models was applied on the focus group which was chosen via random sampling method. 256 randomly-selected, voluntary ones out of 460 physical education and sports teachers in Sakarya province participated in the study which was carried out in 2015-2016. Scale of Tendency of Reflective Thinking in Physical Education and Sports Teachers (YANDE) developed by Semerci (2007) and Groningen Reflection Skill Scale developed by Aukes et al. (2007) and translated into Turkish by Elaldı (2013) were used in the study to gather data. Whether there was a significant relationship between YANDE and Reflection Skill score means were examined via correlation analysis and the results showed that there was a positively significant relationship between YANDE score means and Reflective Thinking score means (p>0.05). According to gender variable regarding YANDE and Reflection Skill score averages, there was no significant difference except for Open-mindedness sub-dimension of YANDE (p>0.05) and Reflection Skill score means (p>0.05). Besides, there was no difference between Reflection Skill and score means (p>0.05). YANDE and Reflection Abilities score means were examined according to the variable of job experience and the results were significantly different and statistically in favor of teachers with 1-10 years’ experience in YANDE in total (p<0.05) and in sub-dimensions of “Constant and Purposed Thinking” (p<0.05) and “Open-mindedness” (p<0.05). Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference between the 11-20 years group in Reflection Skill score means (p<0.05). © 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.