Examining the improvement of conflict resolution skills in the elementary fourth grade Social Studies course

A conflict is a situation that individuals can encounter in every period of their lives. Therefore, instead of avoiding conflicts, benefiting from them by using the right solutions will reflect positively in individuals' lives. For conflicts to be resolved with the right solutions, individuals need to acquire these skills starting from early ages. For this reason, including the activities that will teach these skills to students at school would help them successfully adapt to the society. At schools, conflict resolution skills should be taught to students in a way that will be a lifestyle for them. Accordingly, the course syllabuses at schools can be utilised in this respect. However, in the literature, conflict resolution trainings independent from general course syllabuses were organised to develop conflict resolution skills. In addition, it was also stated in the literature that these skills could be developed through the syllabuses of different courses. One of theses courses is the Social Studies course. Considering the components of the Social Studies course such as its nature, objectives and content, it can be argued that it is a suitable course for developing these skills to train effective citizens. The aim of this study is to examine the improvement of elementary fourth grade students' conflict resolution skills in the Social Studies course. In the study, which was designed in mixed model, embedded experimental design was employed. The Social Studies course was implemented in the context of activities based on conflict resolution skills. The study was conducted in a fourth grade class of an elementary school in the city of Eskisehir in the fall semester of the 2014-2015 school year. The participants of the study were the students and the elementary teacher of this class. In the study, to measure the students' conflict resolution skills, the conflict resolution skill scale was developed. The research data were gathered through the conflict resolution skill scale, teacher and student interviews, observations, learner materials and anecdote records. In addition, the statements in the researcher journal were used as a supportive dataset. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was employed in the analysis of the quantitative data obtained in the study, and inductive analysis was conducted in the analysis of the qualitative data. In the study, results were revealed on the conflict situations that the students experienced, the effectiveness of the conflict resolution education in the Social Studies course, and the process of conflict resolution education. These results are listed as follows: • With regard to the conflict situations that the students experienced, the revealed themes were conflict definitions, reasons, reflection of conflicts in life, approaches preferred, and reactions.  The students defined conflict as a dispute, controversy, resentment, fight and problem.  The students explained the reasons of conflicts by referring to limited resources, selfishness, jealousness, complaining, disagreements, disturbing, not obeying the rules of the game and grouping in games, not doing homework, taunting, and physical and verbal intervention.  The reflection of conflicts in life was perceived as positive and negative. As for the positive aspect, they stated developing empathy skills, enabling anger control and strengthening interpersonal relationships; and as for the negative aspect, they mentioned causing groupings and clustering, and weakening relationships.  In the process of resolving conflicts, the students were found to use the ways of communicating with individuals, complaining about each other, making common decisions, techniques such as counting, resorting to violence against the individuals they have conflict with, giving up on their desires in the conflict process, apologizing, getting help from someone else for the solution of the conflict, and considering mutual desires.  The students were found to give reactions such as avoiding, resentment, warning, crying, worrying, getting angry, feeling sad, and moving away from the environment. • The use of practices towards developing conflict resolution skills in the Social Studies course developed the students' conflict resolution skills. • The gains of conflict resolution skills in the Social Studies course were discussed in the context of in-class activities, problems experienced and suggestions.  Regarding the values, the students acquired the values of being kind, respectful and tolerant, and for the skills, they learned looking at events from the bright sight, mediating between individuals, finding peaceful solutions, controlling anger, listening and showing empathy.  In the scope of developing conflict resolution skills in the Social Studies course, activities were included, such as evaluating different solutions, impersonation, learning materials, finger paint, values and skills education, drawing pictures, discussion, producing slogans, completing dialogues and stories, and question-answer.  During the activities in the class, problems were experienced, such as forgetting the material or the material being limited, finishing in time, interruption of the lesson, students being distracted, difficulty in forming texts and disagreements in group work.  With respect to the process of conflict resolution education, suggestions were offered regarding setting an example to students, using puppets and educational games, discussing social problems, and group work. Key Words: Elemantary education, Social Studies, Conflict, Conflict Resolution Skill, Conflict Resolution Education