The role of school flexibility in adolescents' social skills (Secondary school for girls in Shiraz)

Adolescence is one of the most sensitive and also effective periods in the life of every person. Since one of the contexts of adolescents' lives is school, it is appropriate that adolescents' schools be the basis for the growth and development of their positive behaviors. The present article aims to determine the role of schools’ flexibility on adolescents' social skills (empathy, cooperation, responsibility, assertiveness). Because the development of social skills of girls is different from boys, the statistical population of the study is girls. Research background indicates that flexibility of educational spaces can enhance students 'learning and increase cooperation, participation and interaction of students with each other, but so far no research has been done to determine the effect of school flexibility on students' social skills, so The present research is quite innovative .The research method used in the present research is applied, qualitative-quantitative of the combined type (descriptive-analytical and case study). Data collection methods were library and survey studies with the help of documents, articles and books related to the subject as well as individual observation, Interbitzen and Foster (1992) social skills Questionnaire and researcher-made questionnaire of flexibility (with Cronbach's alpha 0.887). Three schools from Shiraz Department of Education were selected by purposive non-probabilistic sampling to distributed randomly the questionnaires and analyze them by using SPSS software as well as individual observation, to determine the relationship between flexibility of educational spaces and students' social skills and determine the most effective indicators and components of flexibility on students' social skills. Chi-square test statistics have shown that there is a significant positive relationship between the two variables, flexibility of educational spaces with students 'social skills, and also between each of the indicators of flexibility (diversity, variability and adaptability) with students' social skills.