The model of changing quality of relationships with participation and cooperation of students, teachers and parents

This master's thesis presents the process of developing a model for systematically changing the quality of interactions, and establishes the effects of the model on the quality of interactions. The model is based on the active participation of those involved in the educational process, i.e. pupils, teachers and parents. The theoretical part of the thesis is based on a survey and comparative analysis of the professional literature, while the empirical part presents active research carried out at the Tone Čufar Primary School in Jesenice, in which 20 teachers, 200 pupils and 200 parents engaged as volunteers. The aim of the empirical research was to develop, introduce and evaluate a model for changing interactions between participants in the educational process (pupils, teachers and parents) and to establish how the changes introduced influence the quality of interactions in the educational process on the level of a) relations among the participants, b) the teachers’ self-evaluation, and c) identifying the needs for training and changing among teachers, and also d) in the area of cooperating with parents and including all the participants in the decision-making process. The introduction of changes was followed and measured by self-evaluation, which included various instruments applied prior to and following the introduction of changes. The quality of interactions was established on the level of experiencing the relation among participants in the educational process, and the way their opinions, viewpoints, and activities changed in this process was also followed. In the process of introducing changes to improve the quality of interactions in the form of a plan of activities for changing pedagogical interactions, we made possible the active participation and cooperation of different participants in the process and along with this developed a suitable methodology for following the effects of the changes introduced. On the basis of the results of the qualitative and quantitative research into the quality of interactions we developed one of the possible models for changing the quality of interactions among participants. As well as the statistically significant characteristics established on the basis of the first and third parts of the research, the results of introducing and accompanying the changes aimed at achieving a greater quality of interaction and mutual cooperation among all the participants in the educational process involved in this research show that the participants accepted active participation as an effective way of changing the quality of interactions among participants in the educational process and increased their readiness for continued work regarding introducing changes and shaping the school community. On the basis of the self-evaluation of the teachers cooperating, the need was seen for further planning for introducing changes to improve quality in other areas of the educational process as well