SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL: A POSITION OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The formation of scientific research activity (SRA) abilities acquired in comprehensive school is undoubtedly a very important field that has not received a proper attention yet. It makes student analytical thinking stronger and develops abilities to search for and use information. Thus, the object of the conducted research is SRA in comprehensive school. The purpose of research is to ascertain how the students of upper secondary comprehensive school in Lithuania evaluate the current SRA system. The following main research questions have been included in the questionnaire: • How do the students evaluate their participation in SRA? How do the students evaluate the teaching/learning process in Lithuanian comprehensive schools in terms of SRA? • What are the essential promoting and hindering factors of student participation in SRA? How do the students evaluate scholar`s profession? Research was carried out in January-April, 2011. More than 1300 respondents of senior classes participated in the event. A survey (completing a questionnaire) was chosen as a method for conducting research. In order to analyse research data, measures for descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies, popularity indexes) were applied. To identify differences between variables, non parametric chi-square (χ2) criterion was use