Table III.

School educators’ perceptions about the obstacles in implementing the life skill programme during the COVID-19 pandemic

Categories	Subcategory	Code	Verbatim examples
Theme 2.1: Interpersonal aspects
Communication difficulties	Communication	Listening Verbal communication Non-verbal communication	‘On-line communication is difficult, both because of technical problems and from a psychological point of view’ ‘The main obstacle is (..) communicating with the non-verbal’
	Body absence	Physical contact Eye contact Proximity	‘Not looking each other in the eye when talking’ ‘The lack of closeness that sitting in a circle helped to give’
	Students confrontation	Discussion Sharing	‘Debate, the sharing of opinions is necessarily compromised by distance’
Relationship difficulties	Relationship continuity	Interaction Relationship development Synchrony Lack of everyday life	‘Lack of a relationship that is built and consolidated in presence’ ‘The biggest obstacles are the lack of direct, impromptu, face-to-face confrontation’
	Emotion perception	Emotions flow Empathy	‘The difficulty of perceiving the real state of mind of the students’
	Class bond	Community	‘The lack of the community element places great limits on the potential of the LST’
Theme 2.2: Student involvement
Student response	Involvement	Concentration Participation	‘Increased difficulty in maintaining concentration’ ‘The main obstacle is student’s inaction, who does not feel he has to participate’
	Disclosure	Authenticity Physical and emotional commitment	‘The feedback to the activities is very ‘distorted’’
Situational difficulties	Distance teaching	Autonomy Familiarization with the programme	‘The lack of autonomy shown by primary and middle school students during this long period of distance learning’ ‘All this (..) is very difficult, especially for those who are at the beginning of their journey’
	Setting	Privacy	‘Lack of privacy (family members attend the video lessons)’
	Psychological effects	Fragility	‘Helping the weakest children at a distance is complex, because they are cognitively, emotionally and socially fragile’
Theme 2.3: Method
Active and cooperative learning	Methodological peculiarities	Experiential learning Peer modelling Group work Flipped classroom	‘Everything that is experiential among children is very difficult’ ‘Another major obstacle is the difficulty of working in small groups’
	Specific techniques	Circle time Behavioural simulation Autogenic training	‘The main obstacles are the impossibility of realising the working sessions with the discussion in a circle setting’ ‘On anxiety management, the moment of autogenic training’
Coaching	Educational role	Guiding students	‘It is possible to guide them, approach them and talk to them and the class. With distance teaching it is more complicated.’
	Supervision role	Monitoring students	‘It is not possible to have serious control of the group.’
Theme 2.4: Organization and planning
Internal	Time	Fragmentation Lack of time	‘A risk in the division between distance and blended learning could be the fragmentation of the course’ ‘At a distance, very little time is available for the teaching of the disciplines.’
	Setting	Physical setting Perceived setting	‘On the creation of a welcoming and non-judgemental virtual environment that can put the pupils at their ease’
	Resources	Additional tasks	‘Curricular schoolwork that weighs down and does not leave much room for anything else’
External	Tool availability	Access to devices Access to connection	‘The difficulty for some pupils without devices (some requested those provided by the school)’ ‘Lines that are not always stable represent an additional and not insignificant obstacle’