Social skills play an important role in fostering positive peer relationships, students' social connectedness, and a supportive classroom environment. The aim of this master's thesis was to design, implement, and evaluate a social skills workshop program and to examine changes in classroom social connectedness, classroom climate, students' social acceptance, and peer-perceived social behavior following its implementation. The study employed a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design. The sample consisted of 52 eighth-grade students from two classes in the same primary school. Data were collected using the Classroom Environment Scale questionnaire, a sociometric test, the Who Is Who technique, a student evaluation questionnaire, and the researcher's observation journal. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired-samples t-tests, while qualitative data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results did not confirm the expected improvements in classroom social connectedness, classroom climate, students' social acceptance, or social behavior following the implementation of the program. However, the qualitative findings indicated that students perceived the program as useful, interesting, and beneficial. The findings highlight the complexity of students' social functioning and suggest that evaluating social skills programs requires the use of multiple assessment methods to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their effects. The results provide a basis for the further development, evaluation, and research of school-based social skills programs.
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