Sensitivity and Awareness Level of Preservice Teachers about Cyberbullying

ABSTRACT: Development of information and communication technologies has brought some problems. A new form of bullying, designated with cyberbullying is one of the problems that comes with increasing using of information and communication tools. Cyberbullying is one of the problems that may expose individuals to risky and damaging situations at any moment, and it is difficult to take measures. This study aimed for examining preservice teachers’ sensitivity and awareness levels about cyberbullying in terms of gender, age, grade and department of education faculty. Quantitative approach was taken. The target group of this study consisted of 344 preservice teachers studying at Faculty of Education at EMU in 2013-2014 spring semester. Cyberbullying sensitivity scale developed by Tanrıkulu, Kınay and Arıcak (2013) and cyberbullying awareness scale developed by Yenilmez and Seferoğlu (2013) were applied for data collection. The first scale was used to measure sensitivity level of cyberbullying while the second scale measures awareness level of cyberbullying. The descriptive statistics was analyzed in terms of mean, frequencies standard deviations and percentages. Analysis of variances was conducted for finding significant difference for demographic characteristics of sample. The findings indicated that most of preservice teachers had relatively high levels of awareness and sensitivity about cyberbullying but there were no significant differences between the average sensitivity and awareness level according to gender, age, grade and departments. Keywords: Cyberbullying, Awareness, Sensitivity, Preservice Teachers. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………