Congratulations to dr.  Sandrita Škėrienė upon successful defense of a doctoral dissertation University educational environments enabling students to develop the capabilities of value-based problem solving and acquisition doctoral degree in social sciences education.

The doctoral dissertation is available on the internet and at the library of Kaunas University of Technology (20 K. Donelaičio St. , Kaunas), and a brief annotation of it is  presented below. 

Political, economic, technological, social, and cultural changes taking place in the world highlight the problems that require values. It is especially important at the university to develop the capabilities of value-based problem solving of future professionals. The lives and well-being of specific individuals, organizations, and communities may depend on these decisions. Developing the capabilities to solve problems by emphasizing the values requires environments that encourage a change in students’ thinking and facilitate their personal growth and change. This dissertation deals with a scientific problem: what university educational environments enable students to develop capabilities to solve a problem based on values? The theoretical part of this study is substantiating (i) the model of value-based problem solving (VBPS) and (ii) the model of the sequence of educational environments enabling students to develop the capabilities of VBPS. The substantiated research methodology allows to empirically research the practice of university’s educational environments enabling students to develop capabilities of VBPS. The essential results of this empirical research: (i) shows that a theoretically based sequence model of educational environments enables the development of students’ capabilities of VBPS in a specific module of university studies and allows achieving a positive result of this education; (ii) allowed to supplement the model of VBPS; (iii) identified the elements of educational environments that were the source of the formation of students’ personal learning environments.

Dissertation Defence Board of Education Science Field:
Prof. Dr. Brigita Janiūnaitė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Education, S007) – Chairwoman.
Prof. Dr. Remigijus Bubnys (Vilnius University Šiauliai Academy, Social Sciences, Education, S007).
Prof. Dr. Velta Lubkina (Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Latvia, Social Sciences, Education, S007).
Prof. Dr. Romualdas Malinauskas (Lithuanian Sports University, Social Sciences, Education, S007).
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gintarė Tautkevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Education, S007),