Congratulations to the new PhD Zhiyu Yao on a successfull defendce her PhD thesis “Promoting Emotional Expression in Singing Activities for Primary School Schoolchildren” (Education Sciences  (S 007)) and for  acquiring doctoral degree Education Sciences. in the field of Social Sciences.  The scientific supervisor –  prof. dr. Asta Rauduvaitė (Vytautas Magnus University).

A short annotation is  presented below. 

The dissertation  ”Promoting Emotional Expression of Primary School Schoolchildren in Singing Activities” aims to theoretically and empirically uncover the possibilities of promoting emotional expression of third and fourth grade primary school schoolchildren  in singing activities, by explaining how the process of creating emotional expression of primary school schoolchildren  takes place in the music classroom, which helps to involve schoolchildren in the singing activities practice. The qualitative study revealed that the teaching activities are based on teacher-student interaction, where schoolchildren explore the content, develop learning skills and construct knowledge through active engagement in interactive and dialogical interactions with others. Emotional expressions help to communicate emotional information, including a person’s current emotional state, events occurring in the current context, anticipated actions desired by others observing these expressions, and the person’s intentions and plans for possible actions. Singing acts as a creative channel for emotional expression, enabling students to explore different styles of songs, understand different cultures, stimulate critical thinking, experience different emotions and admiration for music, increase self-awareness, and develop musical skills.

Dissertation  Defence Board

Chair – prof. habil. dr. Vilma Žydžiūnaitė (Vytautas Magnus University, Academy of Education, Educational Research Institute, Social Sciences, Education S 007),
prof. dr. Ona Monkevičienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Educology S 007),
prof. dr. Rūta Girdzijauskienė (Klaipėda University, Social Sciences, Educology S 007),
Prof. dr. Diana Strakšienė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Education S 007),
Prof. dr Jelena Davidova (University of Daugavpils, Social Sciences, Education S 007).