Social interactivity dimensions in activities of students in higher education

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the social interactivity dimensions in activities of students in Lithuania and in Spain. Comparisons are performed between the two countries, on issues of cooperation and communication (social activities, social skills and benefit of social interaction) in the learning and teaching processes in higher education. Methods: Literature and document analysis helped to highlight the communication and cooperation as fundamental phenomena of the social competence, its importance for the digitalization and globalization. Empirical study is based on questionnaire survey method. Sample of the research consists of 226 participants: from Lithuania - 123 (53, 5%) and 103 (45, 6%) are from Spain. Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics, version 25. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed with Mplus program version 8.2. Results: The results revealed that, social competence is important for the students not only for the communication and transfer of information, but also as the outcome of collective learning leading to the development of new capabilities applied by the learners in the learning process. Implications: The development of social competence is usually reinforced by personal needs as a desire to participate in formal and informal organizations, a desire for improvement and self-realization.