THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE QUALITY OF SCHOOL LIFE AND SOCIAL COMPETENCES AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The development of social competences represents an integrated part of an individual’s development and is important for the proper functioning within the society. The excessive focus of school on the students’ cognitive development more often leads to neglecting the development of students’ social competences, which are crucial to the students’ healthy prosocial development. Social competences are analyzed within the fields of pedagogical and psychological sciences, lately being attached particular importance. The most convenient for exploring the level of the development of social competences is the school environment, given that students spend most of the time there. The aim of our research was to investigate the correlation between the quality of school environment and social competences among high school students (technical and general-education high schools). The present study results were obtained employing a content analysis method (the theoretical part), a survey method, and a survey technique. The results show that the quality of school life is strongly correlated to the level of the development of students’ social competences. The strongest correlation is observed in the subcategories: general school satisfaction, social integration and preparation for the future, while in the sub-categories of negative feelings toward school and learning experience the correlation is partial. The findings of the current paper might serve as a prelude to planning programs, within school curricula, aimed at improving students’ social competences.