OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT TEACHERS' COMPETENCE TO CARRY OUT THE PREVENTION OF BULLYING AMONG PUPILS AT SCHOOL

Republic of Lithuania Law on Education (2011) indicates that one of the school's goals - to ensure a safe environment for its pupils. However, the number of bullying at schools remains quite high. Regarding the number of pupils, experiencing bullying, Lithuania is in first place (HBSC 2014) among other countries. The purpose of the article - to reveal teachers' competence as a factor, ensuring the prevention of bullying among peers at school. The results of qualitative research, which reflects the teachers' attitude to their competence to deal with cases of bullying among peers at school, are presented in the article. The results of qualitative research reveal the attitudes of social pedagogues and class masters towards teachers' ability to carry out the prevention of bullying at school. The results of the survey show that the majority of teachers have the knowledge about bullying, its expression, however, some teachers state that they lack the ability to deal with cases of bullying among peers at school. Teachers experience difficulties mostly when they try to interfere in bullying situations among peers. The results of the research allow to make an assumption that seeking for the quality in preventing the bullying among peers, it is necessary to improve teachers' competences. KEYWORDS: teachers' competence, pupils, bullying prevention at school. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/atee.v1i0.1312