Abstract:

This study aimed to examine the barriers to the application of innovation in the development of social emotional skills among Lithuanian urban and rural schools of general education. The measures of the barriers to the application of innovation in the development of social emotional skills were evaluated using Barriers to Application of Innovation in Social Emotional Learning (BAISEL) questionnaire (Akelaitis, Janiūnaitė, 2021). The 56-statement questionnaire consists of 13 subscales that measure the main barriers: lack of resources (financial, material, and time), lack of effective training for teachers, inappropriate classroom behavior, lack of parental support/involvement, lack of support and cooperation from the school administration, lack of teacher knowledge and skills, lack of self-confidence, limited expectations, negative attitudes or beliefs, lack of social emotional competencies and poor emotional well-being of the teacher and refusing to accept change. The analysis included 527 teachers (M age – 50.91, SD – 8.32) who have participated in the preventive programmes in 2020-2021 (programmes with a focus on the development of pupils’ social emotional skills) and implemented the development of social emotional skills in schools. The Student’s t-test was employed to determine the reliability of differences between groups. The effect sizes for mean differences were reckoned (Cohen’s d). Results indicated that the barriers to the application of innovation in the development of social emotional skills include lack of resources (financial, time), lack of parental support and involvement. A comparative analysis revealed that Lithuanian urban schools’ teachers lack more support from the school administration, lack more the social emotional competence to handle classroom challenges, and they are more likely to experience emotional stress than teachers in rural schools.

Keywords:

Barriers, social and emotional development, innovation, teachers, urban and rural schools.