Examination of the peace education programme's effects on the conflict resolution skills of students

In this study the effects of Peace Education Program which was applied to 8th classsecondary school students on their conflict resolution skills has been examined. Inline with the aim of the researcher the group which took the Peace EducationProgram and the one which did not were compared in terms of their scores throughevaluation tools and their interview results.The students which joined the study were chosen from 8th class students of asecondary school. A total of 37 students joined the study. These students weredivided into two groups. The Peace Education Program was applied to one of thegroups and was not applied to the other one. This program was prepared for thestudent?s acquisition of effective conflict resolution skills. After this program theconflict resolution skills of students and their perspective regarding conflicts wereaimed to improve. The Peace Education Program consists of eleven activities. Theseactivities are mostly for the conflict resolution skills of students and their ?learningby doing?.In the Peace Education Program there are activities for the clarification of theassociations in student?s minds regarding peace, violence and conflict; activitiesabout in what kind of situations and in what level conflict occurs and about conflictresolution methods; activities regarding the use of `I language?, the use of effectivelistening skills in students and their empathy building and effective use of bodylanguage; activities for the clarification of anger associations and for angermanagement; activities for the student?s acquisition of problem solving andmediation skills. The students joined the Peace Education Program after schoolhours. They showed high attendance during the program. The students realized thatthey could solve conflicts more constructively during and after the program.A total of 37 students joined the research. Among these 12 girls and 8 boys namely20 students constitute the experiment group and 9 girls and 8 boys namely 17students constitute the control group. The Conflict Resolution Skill Scale wasapplied to both groups at the beginning of the study. Then the students in theexperiment group attended the Peace Education Program which had been developedby the researcher. After this process the evaluation tool was applied to the studentsagain. Additionally interviews were made with both groups.Conflict Resolution Scale is a four likert type scale which is prepared for themeasurement of the student?s understanding, listening, social harmony and angermanagement skills and their skills about focusing on the needs. It consists of a totalof 55 questions. It is prepared for the general and total measurement of the conflictresolution skills of students.After the program interviews were made with both the experiment and the controlgroup. There are eleven interview questions. Through these questions and by meansof the statements of the students it is aimed to find out in what degree the skillswhich were aimed to be gained by the Peace Education Program have been acquiredby the students. During the interviews it is aimed to find out the associations ofstudents regarding the conflict, the conflict types at schools, the conflict reasons ofstudents, the conflict resolution ways of students, the student?s anger managementmethods, the resolution methods of conflict occurring between two people, theconflict resolution methods of teachers through student?s perspectives, the conflictresolution methods of psychological advisors at schools and class teachers throughthe perspectives of students, the conflict resolution methods of parents and what theresolution methods of conflicts occurring at schools are. Apart from the experimentgroup the students in the control group were asked what the effects of the PeaceEducation Program are on their lives.At the end of the experiment, there is statistically significant difference in thecomparisons made through the all dimension of the whole scale and ConflictResolution Scale scores of the experiment and the control. In the interviews adifference is found between the views of the students who attended the program andwho did not.The students who attended the Peace Education Program answered the interviewquestions consciously and in an academic language regarding the conflict resolutionmethods and they evaluated the conflicts they experienced more constructively andby giving examples they stated that they acquired conflict resolution skills andasserted that the program provided improvements in every field of their lives. Thestudents who did not attend the program evaluated their conflicts negatively andstated that they sometimes resorted to violence and answered the interview questionssuperficially and in a language which is not academic in terms of conflict resolution.Peace Education Program has a positive effect on the conflict resolution skills ofstudents. When the similar researches are taken into account it can be stated that theapplication of the program to more students in a longer period and by expanding it inthe curriculum will increase the clarity of the research results. The application of thePeace Education Program and similar programs to students will be an important stepfor the acquisition of conflict resolution skills and for a peaceful society whichconsiders the conflicts as an opportunity to improve. When the School-Student -Parent trinity taken into account, this kind of programs should not only be applied tostudents but also to the parents and teachers and ?Peace? should be placed as anattainable goal in the minds of humankind.