The impact of the peace education program on the ninth graders' attitudes towards violence, social problem solving skills and classroom climate

In the first phase of this two phase study, in order to examine the effects of experimental treatment, pretest posttest follow up test control group quasi experimental design was used. In the second phase of the research, peace education studies implementation effects were examined. Experimental, control, and placebo groups each included 24 girls, 24 boys, and 48 students in total. The independent variable of the research was Peace Education Program. Training program included 16 sessions whose each of them lasts 40 minutes. The dependent variables of the research were violence tendencies, social problem solving skills, and classroom climate. Quantitative measurement instruments used in the research were Violence Tendency Scale, The Social Problem Solving Inventory Revised, and Connected Classroom Climate Inventory. As qualitative measurement instruments, Peacemaking Record Form and semi structured Interview Forms for peacemakers, conflicting students, and teachers were used. In the analysis of quantitative data, Repeated Measures One Way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance and One Way Univariate Analysis of Covariance techniques were used. In the analysis of qualitative data, Content Analysis technique was used. Research results indicated that peace education program decreased violence tendencies of the ninth grade students and increased their social problem solving skills. In addition, classroom climate mean scores of students studying in experimental school increased significantly compared to control and placebo school. A total of 36 conflict cases sorted out in peacemaking implementations maintained through one semester were resolved through agreement with 94%. Interviews with peacemakers, conflicting students, and teachers showed that peacemaking implementations provided a significant contribution to constructive peaceful resolution of student to student conflicts. In light of these findings, it can be said that peace education program is effective on decreasing students violence tendencies, increasing social problem solving skills, and improving classroom climate in high school level. Key Words: Peace, peace education, violence tendency, social problem solving skill, classroom climate.