We investigated the social skills and life satisfaction levels of a sample of 459 Lithuanian university students. Participants were 234 women and 225 men; 260 of them were first-year students and 199 of them were senior-year students. The participants completed measures of social skills and satisfaction with life. The results indicated that the women scored higher than did the men for both social skills and life satisfaction. The scores for social skills and life satisfaction of the senior-year students were found to be significantly higher than those of first-year students. There was a positive correlation between level of social skills and life satisfaction; however, this correlation was weak.

We investigated the involvement in their children's education at home and at school of 170 parents (148 mothers, 22 fathers) of Lithuanian children with special educational needs. The children, aged 12-16 years, were receiving their schooling in an inclusive educational environment. Participants completed measures of their perceptions of parental involvement with their child's schoolwork and with teachers, and of teacher involvement with parents. We found that 68.8% of the parents were able to identify their child's specific learning problem, and that just over half were involved in the education process at home. Further, one-third of the parents perceived that they were equal partners when communicating with teachers, and more highly educated parents devoted more time to communicating with their children than did parents with a lower level of education.

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Research background and hypothesis. Sociality in small communities leads to accrued social capital of bonding, bridging and linking. Education of community members’ sociality increases bonding, bridging and linking social capital of the community. Research aim of this study was to reveal the links between activity of community groups and community bonding, bridging and linking social capital.Research methods. The subjects filled in the questionnaire based on the research of F. J. Elgar et al. (2011). The sociality was associated with community social capital, namely its components of bonding social capital, bridging social capital and linking social capital. The subjects were asked to evaluate the items using Likert type 5 point scale.The participants were divided into two groups: engaged in community activities (240 people, among them 35% males and 65% females, mean age 48.52 years) and not engaged in activities (262 people, 62.6% females and 37.4% males, mean age 46.97 years). Research results. The estimates of both groups on bonding social capital scale were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Statistically significant differences were found assessing the bridging social capital (p  < 0.05; t = 4.56), and linking social capital (p < 0.05; t = 3.17) in both groups. Checking the differences of opinions between both groups of men – men and women – women showed statistically significant differences only for women’s bridging social capital (p < 0.05; t = 88.19) and linking social capital (p < 0.05; t = 4.01).Discussion and conclusions.The data confirmed the hypothesis that bridging and linking social capital was related to community engagement. The engaged participants indicated higher levels of bridging and linking social capital.

Pastaraisiais dešimtmečiais mokslininkai, analizuojantys organizacijų veiklą, ypač susidomėjo socialiniu kūrybiš-kumu ir su juo susijusiais asmenybės faktoriais. Anot C. M. Ford ir D. A. Gioia (2000), kūrybiškumas turėtų būti apibrėžiamas kaip subjektyvūs asmens veiklos rezultatai, nauji ir naudingi konkrečios veiklos sričiai. Kūrybiškumas analizuojamas kaip asmens kasdienio elgesio kūrybinio potencialo raiška (Nam Choi, 2004). Manoma, kad būtent kasdienis darbuotojų kūrybiškumas yra sėkmingos organizacijų veiklos garantas. Mokymas yra specifi nė profesinės veiklos sritis. Jai būdingas daugialypis socialinis kontekstas, kuris atveria galimybes asmens kūrybiškumo raiškai. Mokinių kūrybiškumo ugdymas įvardijamas kaip vienas svarbiausių tikslų šiuolaikinio ugdymo procese (Welle-Strand, Tjeldvoll, 2003). Šiuo požiūriu kūrybiškas mokymas ir mokytojo profesinis kūrybiškumas ypač svarbūs. Būtina ieškoti būdų, kaip ugdyti mokytojų kūrybiškumą profesinėje veikloje, tačiau norėdami tai daryti turime žinoti profesinės veiklos kūrybiškumo identifi kavimo būdus.Tyrimo tikslas — įvertinti darbo motyvacijos ir darbe išgyvenamų nuotaikų poveikį pedagogų kūrybiškumui profe-sinėje veikloje. Tyrimo klausimyno metodologinį pagrindą sudaro S. Farmer, P. Tierney, K. Kung-McIntyre (2003), P. Tierney ir S. Farmer (2002), S. A. Kornacki ir D. R. Caruso (2007), N. H. Leonard, L. L. Beauvais ir R. W. Scholl (1999) darbai. Tyrimo metu apklausta 190 mokytojų. Duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 16.0 for Windows programą. Gautas atitikmuo tarp teoriškai apibrėžtų kūrybiškumą profesinėje veikloje lemiančių veiksnių ir empirinio tyrimo rezultatų. Išskirtas suvokiamo kūrybiškumo profesinėje veikloje ir šeši individo lygmens faktoriai, apibūdinantys kūry-binį saviveiksmingumą, darbe patiriamas emocijas ir darbo motyvacijos šaltinius. Penki iš jų statistiškai reikšmingai susiję su subjektyviu mokytojų kūrybiškumu profesinėje veikloje: kūrybinis saviveiksmingumas, pozityvios emocijos, vidinio tikslo motyvacija, vidinė proceso ir išorinė savivaizdžio motyvacija.