Abstract:

Lifelong education, as one of the main pillars of the 21st century education, focuses on the development of transversal skills, especially emphasizing self-directed learning skills, which enable individuals not only to learn qualitatively during the stages of formal education, but also provide the necessary skills in order to proceed with their education throughout life.

The process of self-directed learning skills development, which has been associated with adult education for a long time, nowadays has become relevant in the early stages of education, especially when students start school. At this stage, the improvement of these skills can be considered as particularly important, since the foundations for the enhancement of these skills in the further stages of education are being created, as well as the students' first experience of quality learning is being structured.

The development of self-directed learning skills at this relatively early age is basically related to the interaction between teachers and students during lessons, the application of suitable methodological materials, etc. However, the process of interaction in an educational institution for the qualitative improvement of students' self-directed learning skills should be assessed more widely. It includes all levels of education and collaboration between the student - teacher - school administration, as well as highlighting the significance of the learning environment.

The research objective: approbate and analyse the outcomes applying the pedagogical interaction model developed during the research process for the development students' self-directed learning skills at three levels - student, teacher and school administration.
The design of the qualitative research includes a theoretically based model of pedagogical interaction developed by the authors of the research for the development of students' self-directed learning skills in primary school (Class 1-3), an empirical study has been conducted in target groups in educational institutions in Latvia and Finland in order to assess the correlation between the elements of the interaction model in the pedagogical environment of the educational institution. Lesson observations, interviews with teachers, and interviews with representatives of the school administration have been implemented for data collection.

The findings of interviews and lesson observations in Classes 1-3 reflect the elements of the interaction model: teachers' opinions, beliefs and values, as well as the impact of the teacher’s self-efficacy, personal self-regulation and learning experience on the pedagogical activity for the development of students' self-directed learning skills, they also reveal the impact of school administration components on the teacher's pedagogical activity.

Keywords:

Self-directed learning skills, pedagogical interaction model, student, teacher, school administration.