JOURNAL OF TURKISH STUDIES, vol.11, no.09, pp.635-658, 2016 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
The purpose of this study is to examine the communication skills
and self-compassion levels of teacher candidates and to make
suggestions in view of the obtained data. Accordingly, it was aimed to
examine the subject matter deeply by using together the qualitative and
quantitative methods. The population of the research is composed of the
teacher candidates studying at Buca Faculty of Education, Dokuz Eylül
University, İzmir, Turkey. The sampling of the quantitative dimension of
the research is composed of 498 teacher candidates who are studying at
senior classes of 14 different under-graduate programs of Faculty of
Education, Dokuz Eylül University and who have been chosen through
stratified sampling. The study group of the qualitative dimension of the
research is composed of a total of 42 students (n=23 female, n=21
male). According to the findings obtained at the end of the study, the
communication skills of teacher candidates were observed to differ in
accordance with their departments; on the other hand, both their
communication skills and their self-compassion levels were observed to
differ according to their perceived personality types. Accordingly, the
self compassion scale’ score averages of those perceiving themselves to
be timid and assertive are observed to be higher than those who
perceive themselves as aggressive. Depending on this finding, it is
understood that the ones who have the lowest communication skills
level are those teacher candidates perceiving themselves to be
aggressive. Qualitative results support quantitative results. Besides, in
the consequence of the study, it was observed that there is a positive
correlation between “self-kindness”, “common humanity” and
“mindfulness” dimensions of “self-compassion” scale and all dimensions
of communication skills; and there is a negative correlation between
“self-judgment”, “isolation” and “over-identification” dimensions of “selfcompassion scale” and all dimensions of communication skills.