Abstract:

Background. Conflict is defined as a state of tenseness owing to the stress which impedes the physiological and psycho-social satisfaction (Eren, 2002), or as a challenge by an individual or a group to another one with behaviours or statements as a result of the conflict between their interests (Longaretti ve Wilson, 2006). Most of the daily problems contain interpersonal conflicts over various issues in schools, which may occur between children and parents, students and teachers, teachers and administrators or any two people or groups (Öğülmüş). Violence is also one of the basic problems in human life. WHO (2002) defines violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation." It is important to settle up conflicts before they turn into violence. In daily life or at school environment, the solution of conflicts vary according to the reactions of people to conflict, which depend on, to a great extent, their awareness and perception of conflict, their past learning, other people they take as a model, reactions of other people to conflict, their methods of solving the problem and the culture they live in. The culture forms the perception and standpoint of individuals towards life (Ömür,1998). Awareness is related with how well individuals sense what they are going through and how they experiencing it. It is not related with the memories they recall but the things they live at the current time (Acar, 2004). Being aware of conflict requires six necessary basic skills for its solution, namely tendency, orientation, perceptive and emotional communication, creative thinking, critical thinking and perceptive skills (Öğülmüş, 2001). Perception is a term given to the process by which the data sent by sense organs to the brain is organized, interpreted and made sense (Dökmen, 2001). Differences between people in the perception of the same stimulus may cause conflict and violence. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to examine the conflict and violence awareness levels of prospective teachers and to investigate whether the conflict and violence awareness levels of prospective teachers vary by gender, age and disciplines they study. Method. Survey method was used in the study. The study group is consisted of Ahmet Keleşoğlu Education Faculty students at Selçuk University in 2009-2010. They were chosen with stratified sampling method. 99 students from verbal disciplines, 100 students from numerical ones, 100 students from verbal-numerical, 100 from special talents and 100 from language departments, totally 500 students, between 18-27 years old, took part in the study. 338 of the participants were girls and 168 of them were boys. The Scale of Conflict and Violence Awareness (SCVA) was adapted from “School Conflict Management Resource Guide” of Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management (2002). The SCVA is designed as a 27 item scale; (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) somewhat agree, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree). Scores range between 27 and 135. The higher points obtained from the addition of the items in the scale indicates that the individual has a higher level of conflict and violence awareness. Factor analysis produced a single structure factor with a minimum factor loading of .332 (KMO = .81; Barlett's=1675.82, df:378.00, p<.00). Data were analyzed by using t-test and one-way ANOVA, and post-hoc comparisons were performed by Tukey's HSD test. Findings and discussion. In scale ranging from 27 to 135, prospective teachers mean score 102.81 indicates a relatively high level of conflict and violence awareness. No significant differences were observed in of conflict and violence awareness scores by gender. However, significant differences were found in of conflict and violence awareness scores both by discipline of study and by age cohorts of prospective teachers. Student enrolled in academic programs oriented towards mathematical subjects scored the lowest on the scale as compared to students enrolled in social or verbal subject areas. In the evaluation of the findings, no significant difference was found in the participants' conflict and violence awareness levels in terms of their gender. As for the age variable, it was found that the conflict and violence awareness levels of 18-20 year-old prospective teachers was lower than those of 21-25 year-old ones. As a result of the study, no significant difference was found in the participants' conflict and violence awareness levels in terms of their gender. This finding is in parallel with those of Champion (1979), Revilla (1984), Duser (2002), Paglia (2003) and Bozoğlan (2010). According to the departments of the participants, the conflict and violence awareness levels of prospective teachers at verbal departments were higher than those at numerical ones, which is also in parallel with the findings of Bozoğlan (2010). In order for the conflicts to be solved with constructive methods, it is necessary to determine the conflict and violence awareness levels of individuals because the unnoticed and misinterpreted conflict and violence states are likely to occur, increase and lead to unwanted results. These findings suggest that there is need for designing conflict and violence awareness interventions or programs for students enrolled in academic programs oriented towards mathematical subjects as well as the need for early intervention in teacher training programs, as the age cohort of 18-20 reportedly demonstrated lower level of conflict and violence awareness.

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