Analysis of Mathematical Thinking Skills of Sportsmen According to Certain Demographic Characteristics

The aim of this research was examining the mathematical thinking of athletes who are actively engaged in sports in a sports club in terms of various variables. The research was designed as a screening model. The sample of the study consisted of 229 licensed athletes in various clubs. The "Mathematical Thinking Scale" developed by Ersoy (2012) was used in the research. Percentage frequency analysis was used for descriptive analyzes in the analyzes of the data. Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed among the non-parametric tests to measure the differences between the groups. According to the results of the research, the scores of the athletes depending on the gender variables on the mathematical thinking scale do not differ statistically. According to the educational variables, the total scores of the athletes attending primary education on the mathematical thinking scale are significantly higher than the other groups, and athletes with the lowest scores were the ones that still continue their undergraduate studies. According to the gender variables, there was a difference only in the scores of the problem-solving sub-dimension in mathematical thinking scale dimensions. When the educational status is analyzed by variables, statistical differences are observed among subscales of the mathematical thinking scale except for reasoning. There was no statistically significant difference between the total scores of individual athletes (billiards, tennis, shooting, archery) on the mathematical thinking scale and the scores they got from all subscales of the scale. In the case of team athletes (football, volleyball, basketball), there was a statistically significant difference in favour of those who played soccer and volleyball sports between the total scores they received on the mathematical thinking scale and the scores they received from all the subscales of the scale.