The Relations Between The Democratic Attitudes of A Group of University Students and Some Variables*

Year 2006, Volume: 45 Issue: 45, 37 - 59, 01.06.2006

Yrd. Doç. Dr Nergüz Bulut

Abstract

The aim of this research is to find out whether there is a significant difference between the attitudes of the students (prospective teachers) of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Primary School Teacher Education and Science Teacher Education departments depending on the departments they were educated at, gender, class level, the education levels and occupations of their parents and the attitudes of the parents and the lecturers towards the students. The sample of the study was composed of 265 First and Fourth Grade students, 57 % (n=157) of whom were females, 43 (n=114) of whom were males, and who studied at the departments of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Primary School Teacher Education and Science Teacher Education in the 2003-2004 Academic year. 34,0 % (n=90) of the students were from Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department, 33,2 % (n=88) were from Science Teacher Education and 33,8 % (n=88) were from Primary School Teacher Education. The data of the research was collected by means of “Personal Information Form” and “Democratic Attitude Scale”, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed by Gözütok (1995). Research data was obtained by ANCOVA, Kruskal Wallis Variance Analysis and Benforrini Test Techniques. The result of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between students' attitudes in relation to the father's occupation, the mother's education level, the mother's perceived attitude to the students. Summary One of the most important missions of education is to form a society who adopted a democratic life style. It fulfills this mission through its institutions, programs and the teachers. Teachers' attitudes are vitally important in terms of social and emotional atmosphere of the educational environment (Gözütok, 1995). One of the most essential characteristics is to respect the human rights. These rights also include the equality of having the opportunity to be in the educational environment and benefit from the chances of education. Only with the individuals who are aware of their rights and are able defend them can Democratic educational environment find its real meaning (Yeşil, 2003). Democratic schools ought to be places where teachers and students can agree to the decisions made, where they do planning together, and where different opinions are welcome (Rainer and Guyton, 1999). Democratization of education requires interactional communication which includes organizations which provide the decision making mechanisms based on participatory cooperation (Cotton, 1988). The educator must use the cognitive procedures and schemes to get the democratic skills obtained. To do this, S/he should get into a reorganization by using his/her abilities of internal control, tolerance, systematic thinking, revision reorganization of the decisions on cognitive schemes (Patrick, 1997). Democratic schools must be the institutions where the teacher and the students must agree to the decisions made, where the planning was made and where all sorts of different opinions are welcome (Rainer and Guyton, 1999). The mission of the schools ought to be to raise individuals with the democratic values. Democratic education is defined as teaching the principles and values of democracy by having the students actually experience human rights themselves (Karakütük, 2001). In democratic education, people try to provide equal rights for everyone by complying with laws without discrimination of any sort (Kepenekçi, 2003). Print, Ornstrom and Nielsen point out that individuals with democratic behaviors could be educated by means of only democratic education (Kıncal and Işık, 2003). The teacher has a very important role in the organization of a teaching environment. This way, a democratic life requires educational environments where cooperative learning is practiced, in which the students participate in decision making and discussions made. Whereas, in authoritarian classes, students are passive; and the knowledge is presented to the students through narration (Wile, 2000). Teachers must have these democratic behaviors in the first place in order to provide all these democratic achievements. Training prospective teachers with democratic values is vitally important in terms of training individuals of future with the same democratic values. The aim of this research, in this respect, is to study the perception of democratic attitudes of prospective teachers in compliance with socio-demographic variants. Method Population and Samples The population of this study which was based on the descriptive survey were the students from Dokuz Eylül University, Buca Faculty of Training. The students who were present at school on the day and at the time of the research made up the subjects of the study in which randomized sampling method was used. The sample of the study was composed of 265 First and Fourth Grade students, 57 % (n=157) of whom were females, 43 (n=114) of whom were males, and who studied at the departments of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Primary School Teacher Education and Science Teacher Education. Instruments While the data was gathered, students were given a “Personal Information Form”, which was designed to collect data about the students' socio-demographic characteristics such as the departments at which they were being educated, their genders, class levels, education levels of the parents, parents' occupations and parents' and the lecturers' attitudes towards the students, and a “Teacher Opinionaire on democracy”, to learn their democratic attitudes. The Democratic Attitude Scale, developed by the Attitude Research Laboratory adapted into Turkish by Gözütok (1995), consisted of 50 items and it is reliability is .87. In this study, reliability score is .81. In the scale, there are 32 positive and 18 negative totaling 50 items. The highest possible score from the scale is 50. High scores show democratic positive attitude. Data Analysis In the research, concerning the variables studied, both whether the differences between the average points of the democratic attitudes of the groups are significant or not and whether the difference observed between the corrected democratic attitude scale average points were significant were tested after they were studied to prove their homogeneity and that they could be used. While doing this, the single factor covariance analysis (ANCOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis test techniques were used. To find out from which groups the difference resulted from, Bonferroni Test Technique was used. In this model, the demographic data of the students' forms which elicited information pertaining to gender, age, department, parents' education level and occupation and parents' and lecturers' attitudes towards the students were taken as independent variables. In the research, the level of significance was taken as 0,05. Results and Discussions In this study, which aimed to find out the students' attitudes, the results revealed that there were significant differences on the students' democratic attitudes and the departments at which they were educated at, fathers' occupations, mothers' education levels, and mothers' attitudes towards students. The average Democratic attitude points of females were higher than those of the males; however, this difference was not statistically significant. The democratic attitude points of students who perceived their parents' attitudes as “democratic” were found higher than those of the students who perceived their parents attitudes as “indifferent” and “authoritarian”. In compliance with this result, that the families adopt democratic way of life and democratic values positively affects students' attitudes. The democratic attitude points of students who perceived their lecturers' attitudes as “democratic” were found higher than those of the students who perceived their lecturers' attitudes as “indifferent” and “authoritarian”. In compliance with this result, that the lecturers adopt democratic way of life and democratic values positively affects students' attitudes. Teachers have an important role in the organization of a democratic education environment. Therefore, a democratic life requires educational environments where cooperative learning is practiced, in which the students participate in decision making and discussions made. Whereas, in authoritarian classes, students are passive; and the knowledge is presented to the students through narration. At the end of the research, following are suggested: Generally the democratic points of the prospective teachers were found high. Significant differences were observed in the democratic attitudes of prospective teachers in relation to the departments they were educated at. In this context, especially the students of the departments of Primary School Teacher Education and Psychological Counseling and Guidance need to be provided with the environments in which they could get democratic values to enable them to become more democratic, active and participatory. The lessons related to democracy education must be included in the programs. Giving democracy education to the families is considered to be of great importance. This result indicates that the children of the families who adopted a democratic life were positively affected by this. To raise individuals with democratic attitudes, it is essential that democratic environments be formed. New, multi dimensional, quality-based experimental researches are to be conducted to get the prospective teachers to attain to democratic attitudes and values.

Keywords

democratic attitude , prospective teacher , psychological counseling and guidance , the students of primary school teacher education , science teacher education

Bir Grup Üniversite Öğrencisinin Demokratik Tutumları ile Çeşitli Değişkenler Arasındaki İlişkiler

Abstract

Araştırmada, Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik, Sınıf Öğretmenliği ve Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği öğrencilerinin (öğretmen adaylarının) demokratik tutumları, öğrenim gördükleri bölüm, cinsiyet, sınıf düzeyleri, anne ve babanın eğitim düzeyleri, anne ve babanın mesleği, öğrencinin kendi beyanına göre anne, baba ve öğretim elemanlarının tutumlarını algılamasına göre anlamlı farklılıklar olup olmadığının belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmanın örneklemini 2003-2004 öğretim yılında Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik, Sınıf Öğretmenliği ve Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği Anabilim Dallarının 1. ve 4. sınıflarda öğrenim görmekte olan % 57'si (n=151 kız ve %43 'ü (n=114) erkek olmak üzere toplam 265 öğrenci oluşturmuştur. Örnekleme giren öğrencilerin % 34,0 (n=90)'ü Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik, % 33,2 (n=88)'si Fen Bilgisi, % 32,8 (n=87)'i Sınıf Öğretmenliği Anabilim Dalı öğrencisidir. Araştırmanın verileri, “Kişisel Bilgi Formu” ve Gözütok (1995) tarafından geçerlik-güvenirlik çalışması yapılmış olan “Demokratik Tutum Ölçeği” ile elde edilmiştir. Araştırma verileri ANCOVA, Kruskal Wallis Varyans Analizi ve Bonferroni test teknikleri ile elde edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonucunda öğrencilerin demokratik tutumları ile öğrenim gördükleri bölüm, babanın mesleği, annenin eğitim düzeyi ve annenin öğrencilere yönelik algılanan tutumları arasında anlamlı farklılıklar bulunmuştur.

Keywords

demokratik tutum , öğretmen adayı , psikolojik danışma ve rehberlik , sınıf Öğretmenliği , fen bilgisi öğretmenliği öğrencileri.

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