UYSAL, İbrahim Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi - Eğitim Fakültesi, Turkey , DUMAN, Güler Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi - Eğitim Fakültesi, Turkey , YAZICI, Elif Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi - Eğitim Fakültesi, Turkey , ŞAHİN, Merve Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi - Eğitim Fakültesi, Turkey

Pre-Service Teachers’ Sensibility in Cyberbullying and Certain Psychometric Properties of Cyberbullying Sensibility Scale

14311

In recent years, advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought about a new form of bullying, commonly referred to as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has become a social concern affecting people’s lives negatively similar to bullying. The sensibility towards cyberbullying is the key factor to minimize the negative effects of cyberbullying and get ready for managing cyberbullying. This study aimed to examine pre-service sensibility towards cyberbullying in terms of demographic variables such as gender and department. A survey method was adopted in the study and data were collected from 296 pre-service teachers studying at education faculty of a university in the western Black Sea region. “Cyberbullying Sensibility Scale” developed by Tanrıkulu, Kınay and Arıcak (2013) was used as the data collection instrument to collect the quantitative data during the spring term of 2012-2013 academic year. In the data analysis process “Mann Whitney U Test” and “Confirmatory Factor Analysis” was computed. The results indicated that although the pre-service teachers had a high level of sensibility towards cyberbullying, their sensibility levels did not differ depending on their genders and departments. Reflecting on these results, the study revealed pre-service teachers’ sensibility towards cyberbullying, so future studies could be conducted across different settings with different variables in order to present a more complete picture of cyberbullying. Also, mixed methods studies could be carried out to provide in-depth information about sensibility towards cyberbullying.

191

pre , service teachers , bullying , cyberbullying , sensibility towards cyberbullying

ege journal of education

210