The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between professional personality competencies of physical education teachers working in high schools and gender, school type, and class variables of students. The study was organised according to the screening model. The study was carried out in a total of 17 schools, 16 state and one private, connected to the Ministry of National Education located in Canakkale province, with 1,254 high school students attending in the academic year [2013][2014]. Of the research group, 52.2% were female students and 47.8%were male students. The Physical Education Teacher Professional Personality Competence Scale-Student (PET PPCS-Student) was used as the data collection tool in the study. There were significant differences found in all subcomponents according to school type and class variables of the participants (p < 0.05).Keywords: physical education, competence, physical education teacher, high school
Introduction
The concept of competence is used as the equivalent of standard and quality. Teacher competence is a concept which is used to list in detail the attitudes, knowledge, and skills teachers should have (Turkish Education Association (TED), 2009). The answers to Wilson's (2011) question of "How can we improve teacher competencies?" is stated in his study as providing suitable candidates for teacher competencies, keeping teachers who are better at their duties, entering lessons well prepared, providing good working conditions, and providing quality professional development. Stronge (2007) explained the general competence of teachers in six components: valuing students, respect for student personality and equality, social interaction, professional enthusiasm and motivation, job attitudes, and reflective interaction.Buyuknacar (2008) defined teachers' professional personality competencies as information which is expected to be known in their field which is specific to the individual's occupational group and features by which professional knowledge is evaluated.Competencies of physical education teachers are explained as required knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes which are needed by physical education teachers in order to perform duties and responsibilities (Unlu, Sunbul, & Aydos, 2008).Physical education lessons improve students' leadership skills and self-confidence, increase love and respect for the environment and themselves, help in obeying school and class rules, and provide balanced eating habits (Camlıca, 2008 (Tannehil & Zakrajsek, 1993). Also, in research conducted by Sisko and Demirhan (2002) and Gullu (2007), attitudes of primary and secondary school students toward physical education classes were found to be positive.To make students love the lessons, the teacher should be more effective than the lesson (Eken, 2008). There was a positive relationship seen between success of the students who participated in science and mathematics courses and teacher competence (Monk, 1994). Darling-Hammond (1999) obtained similar results about the relations...