Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 ( 2014 ) 4040 – 4046

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.887

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Corresponding Author: Saide Özbey Tel: 212985787639 E-mail: saideozbey@gmail.com

5th World Conference on Educational Sciences - WCES 2013

Saide Özbey a, Aycan Büyüktanır b*, Didem Türkoğlu c

Abstract

Study was carried out to analyze resilience skill of prospective teachers according to some variables. Personal Data Form, Resilience Scale (its validity test conducted by Gürkan (2006) and Life Satisfaction Scale (its validity test was conducted by Durak et al (2010) ) were used.427 prospective teachers (educated in Preschool Teaching of Gazi University, Dicle University and Cumhuriyet University) were the sample group of the test. According to the research ,resilience skill of prospective teachers change according to their gender, choosing department willingly, socio-economic status, parent’s attitude, hope for future, expressing themselves ,their place etc. It doesn’t change according to grade. It was also understood that there is a positive and meaningful relation between their resilience skill and life satisfaction. © 2013 The Authors Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Servet Bayram Keywords: Resilience skills, preservice preschool teachers.

1. Introduction

Resilience skill which is necessary for modern individual to show anticipated success and continue his(her) life being affected by negative conditions as little as possible in addition to complying with modern changing working and life conditions is explained in literature often. If we try to find a common definition after analyzing the literature, it is possible to define resilience skill as complying with problems swiftly, protecting his/her resistance during a crisis, resisting environmental problems, complying with new conditions and protecting his (her) psychology during these conditions. (Kaner and Bayraklı, 2010:48; Gürkan, 2006:50; Walsh, 2006:4; Waxman,Gray and Pardon:2004:4; Masten and Power,2003:15–16). There are some studies defining power to pulling oneself togeth as one’s getting more powerful after coping with a problem(Silliman,1994:Akt:Terzi,2006:77).Grottberg (1995:2) adds one’s getting more powerful after coping with a problem into his definition of resilience. Resilience skill includes both the problems and necessary skills to cope with it (Rutter,2006:3).In other words, one’s having positive harmony during a problem is related to his degree of resilience skill (Luther et al.,200:543).In literature, resilience is a multidimensional structure including social harmony and skills such as interpersonal positive relations, communication ,coping with etc. (LaFromboise ,Hoyt ,Oliver and Whitbeck,2009:4).Studies that analyze resilience skills according to gender, educational status, age and different qualifications of children that affect resilience skill are available limitedly in our country and abroad. (Kaner et al ,2011:64).Studies explain that

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4041 Saide Özbey et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 ( 2014 ) 4040 – 4046

resilience skill is possible after the development of individual’s problem solving, coping abilities and attaining optimistic view in addition to necessity to develop it since childhood. (Black and Ford Gilboe, 2004;Benard,2004;Akt: Terzi,2008:302-303).In order to develop resilience skill, it is important for individual to get problem solving, complying with the situation and protecting his/her mood during the problems and events of different conditions and time (Masten and Powel,2003:15).Complying with the problems, solving the problems, being optimistic and protecting his/her mood are very important for vocations that include busy human relations, potential to come across with a problem and for vocations whose conditions affect life conditions directly. Resilience skill affects one’s performance positively in vocations such as teaching that includes often exhaustion. Each person can react differently in negative conditions. Teacher’s being patient and resistant during a problem and solving it necessitates healthy mood. Teachers can educate generations positively in such a condition. (Kırımoğlu et al, 2010:89).Teachers play an important role for educating decided, patient, competent and future-oriented generations. Because human relations necessitate heavy struggle, patience and resilience; there is a necessity to solve problems occurred during education cleverly, teachers have to follow daily changes and develop his/her vision. During the first months teachers use different strategies to be successful and comply with their environment. Difference between their expectations (during graduation) and working conditions may cause exhaustion during the beginning of their career. (Bernshausen and Cunningham, 2001:1). In spite of all of the conditions, different conditions that affect preschool teachers’ resilience skill should be decided and their skills should be developed in order to increase vocational skills. Increasing resilience skill would give (individual a) chance to be successful in daily life and vocational performance and that would increase life satisfaction. However, it is certain that activities that focus on increasing resilience skill of prospective teachers (during university) make them more prepared for working conditions. Because of this reason this study aims to analyze prospective teachers’ resilience ability according to variables such as gender, socio-economic status, grade level, attitudes of parents, accommodation, choosing the department willingly, being hopeful for the future, expressing himself etc and to find the relation between resilience skill and life satisfaction. Study is very important because it finds the reasons that affect teachers’ Resilience Skills and supports them psychologically (and educationally);shows the relation between prospective teachers’ resilience skill and life satisfaction and supplies necessary sources that would be used in activities to increase their life satisfaction.

2. Method

Research is a descriptive study. Personal Data Form, Resilience Scale and Life Satisfaction Scale were used. Personal Data Form: Consists of questions that were composed to find demographic qualifications of prospective teachers. Resilience Scale: It was adapted to Turkish by Gürkan (2006).It is a likert scale consisting of 50 articles. It consists of 8 sub-dimensions: Being Powerful, Being Active, Being Optimistic/Related to Life, Communicating Skills, Predicting ,Reaching aim, Being a leader, Being a researcher. Total Variance %57.56, Cronbach alpha inner consistency coefficient is.80 .One would get 50-250 points in the scale. The higher your point, the higher your resilience skill. Life Satisfaction Scale: It was developed by Diener et al (1985) and its reliability and validity (in Turkish) was tested by Durak (2010).Scale is a (one dimensional) likert scale consisting of five articles scaling one’s life satisfaction. One would get 7-15 points. The higher your point is, the higher your life satisfaction. Turkish Students’ (N: 547) average point is 21.91, standart deviation is 6.18, inner consistency is .81;material-total scale correlation changes between .55 and .63.

Study group consists of 427 preschool teacher candidates of Gazi (N=155) ,Dicle (N=119) and Cumhuriyet (N=153) Universities. 87.6% of the sample were female(N=374), 12.4% male (N=53). In data analysis process; double comparisons independent sample T-Test and Mann Whitney U Test; in multiple comparisons One-Way Variance Analysis and to find the relation between two variables Pearson Correlation Test were used.

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3. Results 3.1 Resilience/Gender In order to find that whether their points in resilience scale change according to gender, sample T-Test was used. There is a meaningful difference in favor of males in being powerful sub-factor. (p<0.05. (Female Student X=64.69; Male Student X=68.15).In general, there is not a meaningful difference. 3.2 Resilience/Socio-economical Status

Table 1.Kruskal Wallis Test related to Prospective Teachers’ Points in Resilience Scale according to their socio-economical status .

Resilience Scale Total

socio-economical status

N Mean Rank

Chi-Square

df P Reason of Difference Mann Whitney U

1.middle 372 219,40 9,673 2 .008* 3 (average of the rank=152.74) < 1 (average of the rank=213.68)*

2.upper 11 209,45 3.lower 42 157,25

*P<0.05 According to Table 1,there is a meaningful difference according to socio-economical status (p<0.05). According to Mann Whitney U test (that was carried out to find the reason of the difference), there is a difference between 3.lower (average of the rank:152.74) and 1.middle (average of the rank:213.68) socioeconomic status in favor of 1.middle. 3.3 Resilience /Attitude of Parents Table 2. One-Way Variance Analysis of Points of Preschool Prospective Teachers (In Resilience Scale) According To Their Perception of

The Attitudes Of Parents

Resilience Scale

Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F P Reason of difference (Scheffe)

Between Groups 12582,227 3 4194,076 5,481 ,001* *Democratic attitude (X=192.97) > Unrelated Attitude (X=172.84) Within Groups 323694,804 423 765,236

Total 336277,030 426

*P<0.05 According to Table 2, there is a meaningful difference according to the attitudes of parents (p<0.05).According to Sheffe Test (for understanding the reason), there is difference between Democratic attitude (average=192.97) and Unrelated Attitude (average=172.84) in favor of democratic attitude. 3.4 Resilience/Choosing the Department Willingly Table 3. Independent Sample T- Test of Points of Preschool Prospective Teachers (In Resilience Scale) According To Their Choosing the

Department Willingly or Not Resilience Scale

Choosing Willingly N Mean Std. Deviation df t p Yes 317 190.81 27.48 425 3.641 .000* No 110 179.65 28.31

*P<0.05 According to Table 3, there is significant difference in favor of prospective teachers who have chosen willingly (p<0.05).

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3.5 Resilience/Expressing Himself Easily Table 4. Independent Sample T test Of Points of Preschool Prospective Teachers (In Resilience Scale) According To Their Expressing

Themselves Easily Resilience Scale

Expressing Himself Easily N Mean Rank Std. Deviation df t p Yes

352 192.44 26.45 424 7.736 .000* No

74 166.36 25.88 *P<0.05 According to Table 4, there is significant difference in favor of students who are expressing him/herself easily (p<0.05). 3.6 Resilience/ Hope For Future

Table 5 Independent Sample T test Of Points of Preschool Prospective Teachers (In Resilience Scale) According To Hope For Future

Resilience Scale

Hope For Future N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks U p Yes 388 224.24 87007 3203.00 .000*

No 38 103.79 3944 According to Table 4, there is significant difference in favor of students who are hopeful of the future (p<0.05). 3.7. Resilience/Feeling Himself Alone

Table 6. Independent Sample T test Of Points of Preschool Prospective Teachers (In Resilience Scale) According To His/her Feeling Himself/Herself Alone

Feeling Himself/Herself Alone N Mean Std. Deviation df t P

Resilience Scale

Yes 155 178.10 29.15881 425 -5645 .000*

No 271 193.54 25.95061 According to Table 4, there is significant difference in favor of students who feel themselves alone (p<0.05). 3.8. Resilience/Accommodation (Place of Living)

Table 7. One-Way Variance Analysis Of Points Of Preschool Prospective Teachers (In Resilience Scale) According To Their Accommodation (Place Of Living)

Resilience Scale Sum of

Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Reason of The Difference

Sheffe *City-center (X=191-67)- Town(X=183.02)

Between Groups 7252.428 3 2417.476 3.108 .026*

Within Groups 329024.602 423 777.836

Total 336277.030 426

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According to Table 7,there is significantful difference. According to Sheffe Test (for understanding the reason), there is difference between those living in city-centers (X=191.67) and living in towns (X=183.02) in favor of those living in city-centers. 3.9 Resilience/Grade (Class) One-way Variance Analysis was carried out. According to One-way Variance Analysis, there is not a significant difference according to Grade (p>0.05). 3.10 Resilience/Life Satisfaction

Table 8. Pearson Correlation Test Related To Difference Between Life Satisfaction And Resilience Skills Of Preschool Prospective Teachers

Resilience Scale

Life Satisfaction Scale

Resilience Scale

Pearson Correlation 1 .429** Sig. (2-tailed) .000

Life Satisfaction Scale Pearson Correlation .429** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 427 427

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). According to Table 7, there is significant difference and positive relation between resilience skills and life satisfaction (r= .429

4. Result and Discussion

Studies that have carried out with resilience scale are very scarce abroad. It would be seen more in studies related to psychiatry in order to help individual in problems related to stress. (Prince, 2008; Campell-Sills, Forde and Stein, 2009:1007).There are some studies recently in Turkey carried out with resilience scale. However, differences in sample group and variables result in limited knowledge to discuss. Result of study was tried being evaluated according to this.

In sub-factor, being powerful, there is significantful difference in favor of females. In addition there is significantful difference in favor of whose socio-economic status is better, who perceives his/her parents more democratic; is hopeful of future; has chosen department willingly; expresses him/her easily; feels himself/herself alone and who lives in city-center. There is a meaningful and positive relation between their resilience skill and life satisfaction.

There are different results related to these variables. Kırımoğlu et al (2010) expressed that there is not a meaningful change (of resilience skill) according to gender. Gürgan (2006) in his experimental study, Terzi (2008) in her research carried out with Pulling Oneself Together Scale could find a meaningful difference according to gender in pulling himself/herself together.Campbell-Sills et al) 2009), Sürücü and Özcan (2009) alleged that gender doesn’t affect resilience. Parallel to communication sub-dimension, Özbey (2012) found that female preschool prospective teachers are more skilled than males in communication skill. These show that relation between gender and resilience would change according to sample group and gender would predict resilience.

Özbey (2012) in the same study, showed that communication of students who didn’t choose willingly is worse. Sürücü and Özcan (2009) expressed that hope for future is predictor of the sub-dimensions of resilience. Erdoğan, İşeri and Ünal (2006) expressed that there is a meaningful difference between who lives in city center and lives in town. It is in favor of who lives in a town. Garmezy, Masten, & Tellegen (1984) expressed that students whose socio economic status are worse are less resilience skilled (as cited in; Waxman,Gray and Pardon, 2003). Condly (2006) and LaFromboise ,Hoyt ,Oliver and Whitbeck (2009) showed in their study that environmental facilities, motivation, social support of family and friends, better communication positively affect resilience. These

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factors increase their patience both by motivating individual both for aims related to his/her future and psychologically and changing his/her perspective. Studies showed the relation between environmental and individual factors. Resilience points of students whose are hopeful of future, doesn’t feel himself/herself alone and live in city-center are higher. Studies are parallel to this.There is positive relation between resilience skill and life satisfaction. There are some results of studies supporting this. In their studies, carried out with similar scales, Güloğlu and Karaırmak (2010) found that there is a negative relation between student’s loneliness degree and psychological well-being. Karaırmak (2006), Karaırmak and Siviş-Çetinkaya (2011) also expressed that individuals who are aware of their lives’ aims are more powerful psychologically. According to the results of this study; Improving resilience skill should be an aim of teaching education. There should be supporting programs related to self-help in addition to vocational information. Related to these aims, communication skill, self-reliance skill and responsibility taking skill of students should be improved. Practical activities of social skills and coping with skills (related to resilience skill) would be advised. Parallel to this advice, difficulties that students would come across would be analyzed and educational programs related to cope with them would be practiced.

If we focus on the fact that students who chose department unwillingly have worse resilience skill, there is a big responsibility for instructors to organize educational and social activities that would help students be appreciated with the department.

Being hopeful of future is related to being appreciated with his/her position. Therefore, it is important for prospective teachers to be more interested and informed about the department. Improving their positive thinking skill would affect the process positively. However, students should be supported for conscious department choosing during university entrance exam because students choose their department during this. Both parents and counseling services of schools are responsible for this.

Study is limited with the preschool prospective teachers of 3 universities. It is a prestudy of prospective teachers’ resilience skills. Studies related to different factors affecting resilience necessitate a more crowded sample group.

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