Cyberbullying Prevention Competency among Pre-Service Primary School Teachers: Evidence from a Workshop-Based Pilot Intervention in Kazakhstan

Cyberbullying has become an increasingly important concern in contemporary educational environments as children engage more extensively with digital communication platforms. Although research on cyberbullying has expanded considerably, limited attention has been paid to preparing pre-service primary school teachers for its prevention, particularly in underrepresented research contexts such as Kazakhstan. This pilot study explored group-level differences in cyberbullying-related questionnaire responses before and after a structured workshop. Guided by the Knowledge–Attitude–Behavior (KAB) framework, the study employed a one-group pre-test/post-test design involving 34 pre-service teachers at Korkyt Ata Kyzylorda University. Data were collected using a researcher-developed 28-item questionnaire and analyzed descriptively. The mean unadjusted total questionnaire score was higher at post-test (M = 114.41, SD = 12.12) than at pre-test (M = 98.68, SD = 14.27), with an observed difference of 15.74 points between the group means. Preliminary internal consistency coefficients were .897 at pre-test and .863 at post-test. However, because the questionnaires were administered anonymously without participant-specific matching identifiers, individual-level changes could not be verified. The absence of a control group and the limited psychometric validation of the questionnaire further constrain interpretation. The findings provide preliminary descriptive evidence of higher group-level questionnaire scores following the workshop but do not establish intervention effectiveness or improvement in individual competency. Further research using validated instruments, matched longitudinal data, and controlled designs is needed to evaluate workshop-based cyberbullying-prevention training in pre-service teacher education.