E. Jaleniauskienė “University educational environments enabling students to learn problem solving (in English as a foreign language course)” doctoral thesis defence

Author, Institution: Evelina Jaleniauskienė, Kaunas University of Technology

Science area, field of science: Social Sciences, Education 07S

Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Habil. Palmira Jucevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Education, 07S)

Dissertation Defence Board of Education Science Field:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gintarė Tautkevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Education, 07S), chairperson;
Prof. Dr. Remigijus Bubnys (Šiauliai University, Social Sciences, Education, 07S);
Prof. Dr. Velta Lubkina (Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Social Sciences, Education, 07S);
Prof. Dr. Romualdas Malinauskas (Lithuanian Sports University, Social Sciences, Education, 07S);
Prof. Dr. Ona Monkevičienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Education, 07S).

The doctoral dissertation is available at the libraries of Kaunas University of Technology (K. Donelaičio St. 20, Kaunas), Šiauliai University (Vytauto g. 84, Šiauliai) and Lithuanian Sports University (Sporto g. 6, Kaunas).

Annotation:
Since problem solving is indicated as one of the essential 21st century skills, many educational researchers and practitioners agree that the development of this skill should be incorporated in every curriculum and diverse subjects. The main research problem of the dissertation is: What should university educational environments be to enable students to learn problem solving (in foreign language studies)? The research aim is to substantiate the sequence of university educational environments where students learn to solve ill-structured problems by integrating such practice in foreign language studies. The theoretical part ends with a tripartite model of educational environments enabling students to learn problem solving in foreign language studies. The aim of the methodological part is to substantiate the empirical research methodology for the study. The empirical part includes the context of the study, implementation process of the model, results, discussion and conclusions. The study proves the effectiveness and applicability of the model enabling students to develop both social and cognitive skills necessary for solving ill-structured problems in collaboration, which is merged with learning a foreign language.