| Abstract [eng] |
In current educational institutions, the educational process is often still focused on academic achievement. There is a lack of balance between academic knowledge and social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL helps to achieve the goals of personality maturity and education in order to successfully develop in the 21st century important skills and requirements, SEL is becoming increasingly important in the world. Consistent development of children‘s social and emotional skills benefits in many ways, both for society as a whole and fore ach member of society individually. The role of the SEL is important in developingmore than just general competencies. Social and emotional learning has a positive impact on academic achievement and promotes lifelong learning. SEL contributes to better mental and physical health, stronger motivation to pursue academic achievement, well-being and social progress. In Lithuanian State Education 2013-2022 one of the priorities in the strategy is to focus on social and emotional learning. For this reason, educational institutions have a very important role and responsibility, because in todays‘s school it is very important to help students develop social competences and abilities to built their own lives, not to be afraid to make mistakes and to admit their mistakes. The implementation of SEL programs in the current Lithuanian education system has gained momentum, but it is not clear how these programs are applied in schools on practice, and the success and results of their implementation are not clear. Not much research has been conducted revealing the current situation of the implementationof the SEL programs in Lithuania. This work aims to reveal more factors and barriers to the implementation of SEL in educational institutions. Novelty and significance of this work: systematized barrier characteristics; the factors ensuring the successful implementation of teh SEL are substantiated; reasonable barriers to the implementation of the SEL; barriers to the impelmentation of the LIONS QUEST program „Adolescence Crossroads“ in general education schools have been identified and possible barrier solutions have been developed. The object of the research is the barriers to the implementation of the SEL programs in general education schools. The aim is to reveal the barrier to the implementation of the LIONS QUEST SEL program „Adolescence Crossroads“ (in lithuanian: „Paauglystes kryzkeles“) in general education schools and solutions for their reduction solutions. Tasks: 1) to substantiate the theoretical aspects of social and emotional learning; 2) to substantiate the research methodology of the barriers to the implementation of the SEL program „Adolescence Crossroads“ in general education schools; 3) to identify the barriers to the implementation of the SEL program „Adolescence Crossroads“ in general education schools and to substantiate the solutions for their reduction. Methods of data collection and processing used in the master‘s thesis: review of scientific literature, quantitative research method, written questionnaire, descriptive statistics. The results of the study revealed external (first-order) barriersv include: lack of financial, time and resources, lack of parental and administrative support, lack of effective SEL training for teachers. Internal (second-order) barriers include: educators lack of competences and self-confidence, lack of motivation of teachers to learn and unwillingness to accept changes in professional activities, as well as lack of barriers related to emotional well-being. After the analysis of the research data, the external (firs-order) barriers were found to be higher than the internal (second-order) barriers. The study identified the biggest external barriers: parents offten do not have the time or energy to get involved in their children‘s SEL programs, teachers are not provided with additional funding for preventive work at school, and students lack motivation to learn social emotional skills because of their frivolous attitude toward such education. The biggest internal barriers have been identified: teachers do not believe that the school will pay them for a job well done in the impementation of the SEL, and the stress they experience causes teachers to leave school and their dissatisfaction of work. Bassed on the results of research, the possibilities of reducing barriers are presented, which are related to: prevention of misbehavior of students during SEL lessons, strengthening teacher‘s social emotional competencies, enhancing SEL training and methodological support for teachers, increasing parental support and withdrawal, provision of time, finances and resources. This work consists of: introduction, three parts (to reveal the theory, to substantiate the methodology and to carry out empirical research), conclusions, recommendations, list of literature and sources, 16 tables and 12 figures. Thesis consists of: 87 pages without appendixes. |
