An Analysis on Problem Solving Skills of Students Studying in Balikesir University School of Physical Education and Sports

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problem solving skills of the students in Balıkesir University School of Physical Education and Sports by the variables of age, sex, sports branch, department and grade and to reveal the differences. This is a descriptive research. The research population of this descriptive survey modeled study is composed of 1063 students approximately studying in different departments of Balıkesir University School of Physical Education and Sports while the sample consists of randomly selected 304 students. A questionnaire was used to determine the descriptive characteristics of the students in data collection and “Problem solving inventory (PSI)” developed by Heppner and Petersen (1982) and adapted into Turkish by Sahin et al. (1993) was used in the study. In data analysis, percentage and frequency values were used while One Way Anova, Man Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test were utilized in comparison of data and these data were addressed at the significance level of p<0.05. All analyses were performed with SPSS v17.0 (SPSS Science, Chicago, IL, USA). When comparing the problem solving skills of students studying in Balıkesir University School of Physical Education and Sports by the variable of age, the problem solving skill of 30+ age group was found high. Problem solving perception of the students studying in sports management department by the variable of department was found high. It has been established that problem solving skills don’t differ significantly by the variables of sports branch, sex and grade.