Abstract

• The main purpose of this study is to investigate participation in extracurricular activities and social skills of pre-service teachers from selected Education Colleges. Descriptive Survey method and quantitative approach were used. The Education colleges and pre-service teachers were selected by using simple random sampling technique. A total of 788 pre-service teachers (394 males and 394 females) from selected Education Colleges participated. As research instruments, the questionnaire of Examining the breadth and depth of extracurricular activity participation developed by Denault and Poulin (2009) and the questionnaire of social skills developed by Carmen Paz Tapia-Gutierrez and S1ixtoCubo-Delgado (2015) were used. In data analyses, descriptive statistics, independent samples t test, one-way ANOVA, Post Hoc Test (Tukey HSD, Games Howell) and Pearson Product Moment Correlation technique were used. According to the results, the levels of participation in extracurricular activities and social skills were satisfactory. And then, the present study indicated that there were gender, education level and college differences between participation in extracurricular activities of pre-service teachers. The participation in extracurricular activities of male pre-service teachers was higher than that of female pre-service teachers. And then, the mean score of participation in extracurricular activities for second year pre-service teachers was highest in this study and there was significant difference between first year and second year. Participation in extracurricular activities of pre-service teachers from College 1 was significant difference from College 3. In social skills of pre-service teachers, there were no significant differences by gender, education level and college. Moreover, based on the results, participation in extracurricular activities of pre-service teachers was found a significant and positive correlation with their social skills (r=.298, p<.01).