Assessment of the level and quality of participation in educational work in secondary school: Opinions of students and teachers

The specificities of culture and the conditions that determine it are significant for the characteristics of existing participatory processes of a society, which are reflected in the process of education and upbringing. Student participation in the educational process should teach students to express their opinions, respect others, choose between different options before making a decision, to seek, receive and give information in different ways, to cooperate in solving problems and take activities in all matters and actions that concern them. The pedagogical phenomenon of student participation is a problem that is being explored by researchers from different meridians, with the aim of deepening the level of student participation. The aim of the research is to examine the quality of existing student participation in secondary school, through the views of students and teachers on the most frequently represented levels of participation and (self-)assessment of the participation of manifested forms of student behavior. The research was conducted using a questionnaire containing the modified Hart Participation Scale. The results, processed with descriptive statistics and t-test, show that the most common level of student participation in regular classes is decoration, in extracurricular activities it is consultation and joint decision-making. There are significant differences in the assessment of the degree of representation of consultation with students, to which teachers assign higher values. In regular classes, as the next represented level of participation, students single out the level of manipulation, and teachers, significantly differently from students, consultation. Both students and teachers value student participation in the educational process as good. It is necessary to intensify the professional development of teachers in the domain of children's rights and competences for teaching and learning, supporting the development of students' personalities, communication and cooperation, to begin with, to reflect positive models of work from extracurricular activities into mandatory teaching work, to supplement them with actions that support the development of autonomy, in order to equip students for lifelong learning, civic and professional roles.