An investigation of turkish preservice teachers' aggression levels

Abstract

This research was carried out to investigate preservice teachers' aggressive behaviors. In addition, the contributions of variables to the aggressive behaviors were explored, including females' and males' patterns of explaining aggressive behaviors. Out of 3366 preservice teachers at Education Faculty of Anadolu University and Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey, 853 were assigned to the study through stratified random sampling. Data related to preservice teachers' self reported aggression levels and perceived communication and problem-solving skills was collected by means of the "Aggression Scale" (Tok, 2001), "Communication Skills Scale" (Korkut, 1999), and "Problem Solving Inventory" (Sahin, Sahin, & Heppner, 1993), respectively. An Information Form was developed by the researcher to gather some descriptive information such as gender, age and cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of preservice teachers. A Stepwise Regression Model was used to examine predictors of preservice teachers' aggression. Results indicated that the variables of communication and problem-solving skills predicted aggressive behaviors of not only females but also males. However, academic achievement and age predicted aggressive behaviors of neither females nor males. As a result, patterns explaining aggressive behaviors of both genders were found to be similar.