Abstract:

Effective monitoring and management of the quality of education are one of the State's responsibilities. To this end, internal school performance evaluation is used. Schools strive for good performance and quality education. Such results can be achieved through effective teamwork. Cooperation and motivation are essential in the evaluation/assessment of educational institutions. This is the basis for the teamwork of the self-assessment team and the most common challenge. The research problem implies that only a small proportion of Lithuanian schools are successful in carrying out the self-evaluation process and that an effective implementation team can contribute to its success. It is therefore important to analyse the processes of organising the implementation teams and the factors that limit teamwork within them.

The study aims to reveal the views of the members of the school self-assessment working group about the motivation and communication as the main aspects of teamwork.

With the help of qualitative research access, the analysis of the content of legal documents and semi-structured interviews of the members of the school self-assessment working groups in Lithuania and school administration enabled objective and systematic investigation of the features of the text, generalisation of information, and formation of appropriate conclusions. The research was carried out from March 2022 to May 2022. The content of the school self-assessment working group members' reflections were transcribed in separate protocols. The analysis has been conducted by consistently analysing the content of a text, dividing the content under investigation into analytical units, i. e. categories, and sub-categories.

The results of the study reveal several factors that interfere in creating teams during the school self-assessment process. The lack of financial and verbal incentives, the lack of focus in the evaluation, the complexity of the data analysis process, and the lack of visibility of the evaluation results, all undermine the motivation of team members to achieve the objectives set for them. Unconstructive, distrustful interpersonal relationships and communication breakdowns between members of the working groups are difficult to manage due to the lack of clear agreements and rules or their adoption after the work process is well underway. This leads to mistrust between members of the working group, conflicts, redistribution of work, and delays in completion.

Keywords:

School self-assessment, performance, teamwork, group work, motivation, communication.