In the 21st century, education is identified not only as one of the fundamental human rights that ensure the quality of life, but also as a key driver for the sustainable development of society. Therefore, in modern society, the pursuit of knowledge should become a priority and a way of life for every young person. These reasons encourage the analysis and evaluation of the factors that determine the quality of education, because the context of today's Lithuanian and European dimensions of education determines the necessity of ensuring the importance of the quality of education from an early age. This situation presupposes a problematic question of the research: what factors determine the quality of primary education. That the analysis requires quality assurance issues at the primary level of education becomes clear from the analysis of scientific, methodological literature and educational documents, as issues of quality of education at this level are insufficiently researched and emphasized. More attention is paid to the analysis of quality education in the pre-school sector and basic school. On the other hand, it is a very important and timely issue, because primary education is the first stage of formal education, which has important goals and objectives related to the child's educational opportunities, challenges and further development perspectives. In order to collect the research data, a questionnaire survey was conducted, in which 110 primary education teachers working in the country's educational institutions participated. A questionnaire was prepared, in which the essential information blocks related to the quality of education of primary school students were singled out: planning and organization of the educational process, creation of the educational environment, the teacher's personality and his professionalism. During the research, the factors that determine the quality of education of primary school students were analyzed theoretically and empirically. Statistically significant differences were found in the assessment of different factors, pedagogical work experience and groups of teachers with different qualification categories. Keywords: education quality, empirical research, primary school, quality assurance

The article explores the idea of change in the higher educational process that is implemented via the problem-based learning strategy. Problem-based learning (PBL) is widely understood as an epistemological transformation in higher education. It is emphasized that the transformation should take place throughout the educational process, and assessment is an inseparable and very important part thereof. The study was aimed at revealing the experiences of participation in the assessment processes in PBL of students attending social science programmes in Lithuania. The empirical study, employing a semi-structured interview method, has shown that the students feel empowered when they have the opportunity to assess the entire educational process and (self-)assess the efforts related to the possibilities to become actively engaged in improvement of the assessment strategy. The study has also shown students’ critical approach to the previous experience of assessment in the educational process. Difficulties of student participation in the assessment process in PBL were also identified. They were largely due to the change in the assessment system employed by the teacher and the manifestations of student bias when participating in (self-)assessment.

The article deals with the problems of the development of future preschool and pre-primary education teachers’ creativity in study process, actualizes the importance of the development of a future professional’s creativity as one of the soft skills in the context of the challenges of modern transformations of the society, change in education, reforms in teacher training, presents theoretical interpretations of the concept of creativity, analyses the results of the research on the potential, expression and development of future childhood pedagogues’ creativity in study process,  substantiating existing general problems and the importance of necessary changes in developing learners’ creativity in closely related cycles of high school and university education. The article emphasizes the need for enhancing responsibility, motivation for study quality and development of skills necessary for professional activity not only in teachers but also in students themselves.

Modern childhood research is more and more positioned towards the child, his/her abilities to perceive himself/herself and the world. In this case, the child becomes the subject of the research who has his/her own “voice”. It is characteristic of the research when it is conducted in the interaction of childhood sociology and historical and cultural psychology. In such research, the introduction of the adult filter becomes especially complicated, because they are children, not adults, who represent their own world of childhood. It is attempted to start the research from the analysis of a particular child and his/her situation of being in the present. Thus the child’s changed status and his/her new social roles are acknowledged. Researchers think that children have their opinion on all the issues of life: educational, cultural, political, economical ones, etc. Involving children in the research, it is suggested that they need to be interviewed individually and information need to be collected, focusing on the fact that the information might be important not only to children but also to adults. Information also helps the researcher himself/herself better understand the modern world of childhood and the child. Adults are only involved in the research when it is attempted to find out the links by which they are related to children and the role they perform in their life.