Research Information System
12. Uluslararası Eğitim Yönetimi Kongresi, Ankara, Turkey, 11 - 13 May 2017, pp.303-305, (Full Text)
Introduction
To protect and develop the physical and psychological welfare of students, teachers should respond and
behave morally. Pre-service teachers should also be aware of this situation like in-service teachers since they are
the teachers of future. For this purpose, teachers and pre-service teachers should understand and comment on
situations so that they can tend to behave ethically (Hanhimäki and Kirsi, 2009). In addition that providing
emotionally safe environment where students are able to share their thought, do wrong, retry and be given
feedback is important for their development (Narvaez, 2001). Furthermore; “teachers must be sensitive to
situational cues and must be able to visualize various alternative actions in response to that situation”.
(Hanhimäki & Kirsi, 2009:108). To be able to put into practice, pre-service teachers must have ethical
sensitivity. “Ethical sensitivity is the empathic interpretation of a situation in determining who is involved, what
actions to take, and what possible reactions and outcomes might ensue” (Narvaez, 2001:7). According to
Weaver, Morse and Mitcham (2008), ethical sensitivity means to understand, make sense of and react the care
whose people get professional service. Rest (1992) stated that ethical sensitivity is the first step for ethical
decision. The researcher explained it like that a person acts by taking into consideration of the others people’s
welfare and be aware of effects of their actions.
Purpose of the Study
Since the ethical sensitivity is so important in classroom environment, investigating the ethical sensitivity
enables that professionals are able to recognize the ethical dimension of their work and improve their
professional development (Weaver, Morse and Mitcham 2008). In the literature, there are some researches on
professional ethical sensitivity (Bebeau, Rest &Yamoor, 1985; Mcneel, 1994; Clarkeburn, 2002; Kuusisto, Tirri
& Rissanen, 2012; Ottekin- Demirbolat & Aslan, 2014). But in this study, ethical sensitivity was dealt with
regardless of professional aspect. Moreover, there is no enough research about the ethical sensivities of preservice
elementary mathematics teachers. That’s why determining the level of ethical sensitivity of pre-service
elementary mathematics teachers is important to be able to avoid potential problems in the future.
According to this purpose the research problems of this study are listed as:
Do the ethical sensitivities of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers differ according to
i. gender,
ii. grade level and
iii. level of parent education?
Method
In this study, a descriptive survey model from quantitative research methods is used. In order to arrive at
a judgment on the universe through a selected sample, the research has been completed in the form of
determining the existing state. The sample of the study is the pre-service elementary mathematics teachers who
are studying at a public university located in Turkey. The data were obtained from four grade levels and 174
teacher candidates.
Within the scope of the research, "Ethical Sensitivity Scale" was used to determine the ethical
sensitivities of the pre-service teachers. The original scale was developed by Tirri and Nokelainen (2007) and
adapted to Turkish by Ottekin-Demirbolat and Aslan (2014). The scale does not contain any occupational items
that are intended to make a difference between the ethical sensitivity of the participants and the ethical sensitivity
of any person (Ottekin-Demirbolat & Aslan, 2014). The scale consists 28 items and seven factors as "reading
and expressing emotions", "understanding other people's ideas", "taking care to relate to other people", "working
with person and group differences", "preventing social prejudices ", " to develop comments and opinions "," to
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determine the results of action and options". The reliability of the scale was reexamined and the Cronbach's
alpha coefficient was 0.86 in this study. Eight different ethical sensitivity scores, including the whole scale and
all factors, have been calculated for each participant. Afterwards, the obtained data were analyzed according to
the purpose of study with SPSS.20 package program.
Findings
When the obtained data were examined, it was determined that the sample showed normal distribution.
Findings are presented for each research problem.
In the first problem, it was analyzed that if there is a meaningful difference in the ethical sensitivity levels
of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers according to their genders. Independent groups t test was
conducted on 42 male and 132 female teacher candidates. As a result, there is a difference only in the “refraining
from social bias” factor in favor of male candidates (p =, 04 <, 05, t = 2,10). There is no significant difference in
the other factors or in the whole scale according to gender.
In the second problem of the study, it was examined whether the ethical sensitivity levels of pre-service
elementary mathematics teachers differ according to their grades. One-way ANOVA test was conducted at the
four-grade level. According to the results, it was found that there was a significant difference between the scores
of “being careful in making contact with others” factor. It was observed that the difference was found between
the 2nd grade and 1st grade pre-service teachers with the favor of 1st grades (p=,00<,05, F = 4,31). In addition, a
significant difference was found between 2nd and 4th grade pre-service teachers with the favor of 4th grades in
the same factor (p =, 00 <, 05, F = 4,31). Another difference obtained from the “creating comments and options”
factor. In this factor, there was a significant difference between the between 1st and 2nd grade pre-service
teachers, in favor of 1st grades. Also in the same factor there were significant differences between the 2nd and
3rd grade pre-service teachers in favor of 3rd grade and between 2nd and 4th grade pre-service teachers with the
favor of the 4th grade (p =, 04 <, 05, F = 2.86 ).
In the last problem of the research, it was investigated that if there is a significant difference in the ethical
sensitivity levels of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers according to their parents’ education level.
Participants were firstly grouped according to their mother's education level, as until high school and high school
or beyond. As a result, there was no significant difference between the ethical sensitivities of the pre-service
teachers according to the mother education level.
Finally, it was investigated that if there is a significant difference in the level of ethical sensitivity of preservice
elementary mathematics teachers according to the level of father education. Participants were grouped
according to their father's educational level, as until high school and high school or beyond. According to the
results, there were significant differences between the scores of the three factors as “understanding and
expressing feelings”, “asking for others’ ideas” and “creating comments and options”. All significant differences
respectively to the mentioned factors were found to be in favor of pre-service teachers whose father education
level were high school or beyond (p =, 03 <, 05, t = -2,15, p =, 03 <, 05, t = -2,24; p =, 03 <, 05, t = -2, 20).
Discussion, conclusion and suggestion
When all those findings are examined, ethical sensitivity levels of pre-service elementary mathematics
teachers are found to be a high level. Furthermore, their highest ethical sensitivity level is being careful in
making contact with others and their lowest ethical sensitivity level is refraining from social bias. These findings
are parallel with the studies of Ottekin-Demirbolat, and Aslan (2014) and Kuusisto, Tirri and Rissannen
(2012).Beside these, it has been revealed that the ethical sensitivity of pre-service elementary mathematics
teachers differ according to some demographic characteristics on the basis of factors of scale. In the refraining
from social bias dimension, female pre-service teachers are more sensitive than male ones. It may arise from
emotional property of women. It can be said that pre-service teachers’ ethical sensitivity in some dimensions are
affected from their fathers’ educational levels. The pre-service teachers whose fathers’ educational level is
higher than others have more sensitive on understanding and expressing feelings, asking for others’ ideas and
creating comments and options. The communication quality between children and their fathers may be
explanation of these findings. The fact that their ethical sensitivity differs in terms of their gender, fathers’
education level and grades is important for future studies. In-depth interviews for investigating the causes of
these differences are recommended for future studies.
Keywords: Ethical sensitivity, Pre-service teachers, Mathematics education