VARIATIONS IN THE ROLE AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE MENTOR IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

Abstract

Competence-based education is at the heart of contemporary education in Lithuania, enabling learners to acquire knowledge, skills and values (Cibulskas, Miseliūnaitė, 2020). In the age of technology and personalised content, one of the most important missions of schools and non-formal education institutions is the development of self-awareness and self-confidence, empathy, social awareness and the development of positive relationships, responsible decision-making and behaviour assessing the consequences of the skills, which in relation constitute social competence (Sabaliauskas, Šukytė, 2021). There are few fields for which being together, agreeing and listening are more important than in music, whose social nature makes it a particularly favourable tool for developing social competence. In musical activities, the interaction between participants is strengthened by traditional activities as well as by less frequently organised musical activities, including eurhythmics, the teaching of music through movement (Urista, 2016). The union of kinaesthetic and musical activities based on dynamic activities creates unique opportunities for the development of social competence.

The aim of this article is to present eurhythmics as an area of artistic education that effectively develops students' social competence. The paper describes a study that reveals the experiences and attitudes of students and teachers participating in eurhythmics lessons. Over the course of research, a focus group interview was conducted with two groups of choir singers of different age. Another method comprised individual interviews with four eurhythmics teachers in Lithuania and Austria, who expressed their views and motivation of choices in eurhythmics lessons they lead. Responses of children attending eurhythmics lessons reveal that the social aspect of eurhythmics lessons is well understood and important to the students. Responses of the teachers highlight the development of social competence as one of the priority areas of the eurhythmics lesson.

Results of this research suggest three main conclusions, that competence-based learning is identified as one of the priorities of modern education in the documents setting the educational agenda. Among the competences to be developed, social competence is one of the most important, ensuring the successful functioning of the individual in the community, which is determined by emotional, cognitive and behavioural competences. Eurhythmics is a modern concept of music education, based on learning the rhythm, structures and expressions of music through movement. In E.J. Dalcroze's eurhythmics system, the educational process includes: 1) eurhythmics (developing the sense of time and rhythm through movement); 2) solfègé (developing inner hearing through singing and music writing exercises); 3) improvisation (developing free and spontaneous movement and musicianship skills). The main aim of E.J. Dalcroze's system is harmony of body, spirit and mind.

Data analysis from empirical study allowed to reveal the peculiarities of the development of social competence of pupils in eurhythmics. The study showed that: a) the students who participated in the focus group interviews, reflecting on the tasks performed during the lessons, identified the development of knowledge and skills in elementary music theory, tactile and kinaesthetic senses, and personal competence as the most important aspects of their development. A significant number of informants also mentioned the development of social competence, thus suggesting that communication, cooperation, mutual understanding and group work are important aspects of a eurhythmics lesson; b) interviews with teachers revealed that the most important goals of teachers in eurhythmics lessons are to satisfy the student's natural need to move, to enrich music teaching with active teaching methods, to develop bodily sensorially, co-ordination and social skills, to develop students' music-making abilities and to encourage self-expression. According to the views of eurhythmics teachers, development of social competence has the strongest links to the ability to make decisions about oneself; the ability to adequately understand the wishes, demands, expectations and rights of others; and the ability to understand social structures and to adapt one's own behaviour in relation to them.