Schools In Greece Research Articles

Understanding curriculum change in an ELT school in Greece

This article reports on a case study of a language school in Greece, with a view to putting forward an understanding of the drivers that sustain or delay curricular innovation. Key to this understanding is the construct of intentionality, defined as ‘purposes’ that drive teaching and learning activity. In the article, we describe three main intentionalities that were present in the language school: (1) ‘credentialism’, an imperative to provide learners with certification; (2) ‘supplementation’, a drive to attain learning outcomes that students failed to attain in the state school system; and (3) ‘protectionism’, an unstated agenda of maintaining the status of local Greek L1 ELT practitioners. We describe how these intentionalities generated fluctuating dynamics, from which different pedagogical patterns emerged. Finally, we discuss the implications of this perspective for understanding and managing change and innovation in ELT settings.

Φιλικές σχέσεις μαθητών με και χωρίς Διαταραχή Ελλειμματικής Προσοχής-Υπερκινητικότητα (ΔΕΠ-Υ) στο δημοτικό σχολείο

<p>Friendship is a dyadic relationship between two individuals, based on mutual affection and reciprocity. It is a voluntary bond co-created by two friends who expect to share an intimate, mutually rewarding experience with commitment, support and validation. In childhood, friends serve as playmates; in adolescence, they are viewed as confidants who provide emotional closeness. Having friends seems to mitigate the consequences of peer rejection and buffer against adjustment problems. Friendships vary in quality and stability. Regarding quality, some friendships possess positive features, such as validation, caring and trust, while others have negative features, such as conflict, antagonism and competition. Regarding stability, although the average friendship lasts for about one year, significant variability exists. Children with ADHD often experience peer relationship difficulties, mainly due to their social skills deficits. Research evidence suggests that the majority of children with ADHD have no reciprocated friends and that their friendships are less stable and of lower quality, while they prefer to be friends with other children with the same disorder. Research evidence looking at friendships and friendship quality of ADHD pupils attending inclusive settings is limited. This study examines friendships and perceptions of friendship quality of children with and without ADHD, attending inclusive public primary schools in Greece. Data regarding friendship stability and other characteristics of friendships of pupils with ADHD were also collected. One hundred and two typically developing children and22 children diagnosed with ADHD (mean age =9.51, <em>s.d</em>.= 1.30, age range: 8 to 12 years), named their friend(s) and their very best friend, using a sociometric nomination procedure; additionally, children responded to the Greek version of the <em>Friendship Quality Questionnaire</em>. Moreover, variables such as the number of the participants’ mutual friends, their friends’ characteristics and friendship duration were examined. The participating children were informed of the purpose of the study and were given appropriate instructions for completing the questionnaires individually. Data collection took place at pupils’ schools and children were engaged for approximately 30 minutes. The results showed that the majority of pupils with ADHD had few friends and even fewer mutual friendships than their typically developing peers. An interesting result of the present study, not in line with previous research evidence, is that ADHD children do not choose peers with disabilities to be their friends. Friendships of children with ADHD, as compared to those of typically developing peers, were of short duration. However, both ADHD children and their peers tend to attribute positive features to their friendships which are characterized by intimacy and support. Taking into consideration the importance of friendships in one’s life, as well as the fact that this research area has attracted little attention in Greece, further investigation is required.</p>

Solving the high school timetabling problem using a hybrid cat swarm optimization based algorithm

In this contribution we present the application of a hybrid cat swarm optimization (CSO) based algorithm for solving the school timetabling problem. This easy to use, efficient and fast algorithm is a hybrid variation of the classic CSO algorithm. Its efficiency and performance is demonstrated by conducting experiments with real-world input data. This data, collected from various high schools in Greece, has also been used as test instances by many other researchers in their publications. Results reveal that this hybrid CSO based algorithm, applied to the same school timetabling test instances using the same evaluation criteria, exhibits better performance in less computational time compared to the majority of other existing approaches, such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs), Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), Simulated Annealing (SA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial Fish Swarm (AFS). The algorithm's main process constitutes a variation of the classic CSO algorithm, properly altered so as to be applied for solving the school timetabling problem. This process contains the main algorithmic differences of the proposed approach compared to other algorithms presented in the respective literature.

Modeling of DNA and protein organization levels with Cn3D software.

The molecular structure of living organisms and the complex interactions amongst its components are the basis for the diversity observed at the macroscopic level. Proteins and nucleic acids are some of the major molecular components, and play a key role in several biological functions, such as those of development and evolution. This article presents an educational, bioinformatics-based process, designed to enhance a better understanding of the structure of the above molecules. In addition, by using selected protein molecules, it attempts to clarify protein organization levels and how these are related with the structural and functional diversity, which define the biodiversity of living organisms at the macroscopic level. In the framework of this project, molecular modeling has been performed using the Cn3D software, created by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Cn3D is a user friendly application, which is easy for students to get familiar with quickly. Our suggested process may be easily enriched by a multitude of protein, nucleic acid, or other molecule structures, which are freely accessible at NCBI website. The described process has been implemented by students (n = 225) of the 5th high school grade, in two high schools in Greece. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):126-129, 2017.

The ignorant environmental education teacher: students get empowered and teach philosophy of nature inspired by ancient Greek philosophy

This paper presents an attempt to apply Jacques Rancière’s emancipatory pedagogy of ‘the ignorant schoolmaster’ to environmental education, which emphasises environmental ethics. The paper tells the story of a philosophy of nature project in the framework of an environmental adult education course at a Second Chance School in Greece, where adult students researched ancient Greek philosophy of nature, discovered and adopted environmental values and taught their schoolmates. The paper presents the findings of this pedagogical experiment and evaluates the benefits and the skills that students can acquire through emancipatory pedagogy and through peer teaching and learning. Α cross-disciplinary combination of emancipatory pedagogy, environmental education, philosophy of nature and environmental ethics that can empower students and strengthen their environmental conscience with emphasis in ecocentric and ecojustice values is proposed. Τhe role of the teacher as a student, who continues to investigate and learn, trusting the intelligence and the abilities of his/her students is also examined. Furthermore, it is argued that there is a need to focus on the role of philosophy of nature and environmental ethics in environmental education and, because of its wealth and subtlety, ancient Greek philosophy can contribute to this emancipatory, environmental education paradigm.

School grounds as a resource of green space to increase child-plant contact

Children spend a considerable amount of their time in school and combined with the fact of limited availability of green open spaces due to increased urbanisation, school grounds could play a pivotal role as a recreational place for pupils. The literature devoted to school ground planting has contributed to realising the significance of the role of school ground planting for pupil school life. However the school ground planting in many schools is limited and does not offer opportunities for pupil-plant contact. In this study, pupils and teachers of secondary schools in Greece were addressed in a questionnaire survey to investigate their perceptions of the school ground planting, its use or related-with activities and preferences. The results showed that pupils and teachers had very little knowledge of the plant species present in the school ground planting and that plant material had very little use in school lessons and activities. In contrast both teachers and pupils expressed the desire to include plant material in school lessons and activities and with regard to this, a need for teacher training was identified. Pupils’ main preferences in plants for use in school ground planting were based on functional characteristics such as the provision of shade. Flowers, constituted the most preferred plant part by pupils and amongst the various plant types, pupils preferred mainly woody plants and trees species. The results suggest the need to rethink school ground planting and provides a valuable insight to the potential of school planting to increase pupil-plant contact with the aim to increase pupils’ knowledge about plants and the environment in general, creating opportunities to support educational outdoor activities and experiences through play and teaching of the school curriculum.

Teaching experimental design to elementary school pupils in Greece

This research is a study about the possibility to promote experimental design skills to elementary school pupils. Experimental design and the experiment process are foundational elements in current approaches to Science Teaching, as they provide learners with profound understanding about knowledge construction and science inquiry. The research was carried out in pupils of an elementary school in Greece, who participated in the Science Club, which is composed of learners with interest and talent in the science subject. This club was formed in the year 2013-2014. Up until the year 2015-2016, totally 42 pupils have participated. All of them were involved in experimental design tasks. Through a qualitative research, it was examined whether the learners got familiar with the basic dimensions of experimental design. These are precision of variables, hypothesis stating and clarification of measurements and observations. Findings were overall positive. However, there is room for improvement.

Regulative discourses of primary schooling in Greece: memories of punishment

The mechanisms of discipline and power within the institution of the school constitute, in part, the relationship between society and childhood. This article traces the relationship between official regulative discourses of control and punishment practices over students in primary school. It focuses on the memories of schooling of first-year students in a Department of Primary Education at a Greek University. The concepts of power, discipline and discourse from the theory of Michel Foucault are drawn on to examine the pedagogical control over primary school pupils. The research was carried out using an open questionnaire in which participants were asked to describe their experiences of school punishment. The key findings showed that corporal punishment is dominant in the memory of the majority of research participants. The reason for the pupils’ punishment was mainly their making noise in the classroom and their poor performance in core subjects of the curriculum. These findings are significant for the sociology of education as they reveal the real and symbolic violence of school life that endures in memories of childhood, schooling and society.

Attitudes of native and immigrant students towards school bullying in Greece

Although school bullying is a serious form of violence, relevant studies do not agree if immigrant students are at higher risk to be involved in bullying than native students in ethnically diverse schools. The purpose of the study was to investigate the attitudes of Greek and non-Greek students about school bullying. The sample composed of 719 native and 120 non-native students attending primary and secondary schools in Greece. Data were collected via a self-report questionnaire, and the Statistical Package SPSS was used for their analysis. Results showed that positive interpersonal relationships between Greek and non-Greek students are associated with low frequency of bullying. A significant percentage of students from both groups had observed bullying between native and immigrant children. However, the majority of them had never been bullied or victimized in their school. Verbal bullying was the most dominant bullying behaviour. The importance of the findings is discussed.

A cross evaluation-based measure of super efficiency in DEA with interval data

Purpose – The traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model as a non-parametric technique can measure the relative efficiencies of a decision-making units (DMUs) set with exact values of inputs and outputs, but it cannot handle the imprecise data. The purpose of this paper is to establish a super efficiency interval data envelopment analysis (IDEA) model, an IDEA model based on cross-evaluation and a cross evaluation-based measure of super efficiency IDEA model. And the authors apply the proposed approach to data on the 29 public secondary schools in Greece, and further demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, based on the IDEA model, the authors propose an improved version of establishing a super efficiency IDEA model, an IDEA model based on cross-evaluation, and then present a cross evaluation-based measure of super efficiency IDEA model by combining the super efficiency method with cross-evaluation. The proposed model cannot only discriminate the performance of efficient DMUs from inefficient ones, but also can distinguish between the efficient DMUs. By using the proposed approach, the overall performance of all DMUs with interval data can be fully ranked. Findings – A numerical example is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology. The result shows that the proposed approach is an effective and practical method to measure the efficiency of the DMUs with imprecise data. Practical implications – The proposed model can avoid the fact that the original DEA model can only distinguish the performance of efficient DMUs from inefficient ones, but cannot discriminate between the efficient DMUs. Originality/value – This paper introduces the effective method to obtain the complete rank of all DMUs with interval data.

Strengthening collaboration and communication skills in an online TPD program for 21st-century educators

The profile of the 21st-century teacher should reflect the philosophy of lifelong and adaptive learners who never stop enriching their knowledge, upgrading their skills and re-calibrating their career paths. To achieve such goals, many academic institutions implement teacher professional development (TPD) programs to support the professional development of the educational community. The goal of our research is to design an online TPD program which allocates roles and activities to learners and manages their progression through both in order to maximise the learning benefits. To this end, a PBLJii script orchestrated in line with the principles of a PBL model and the Jigsaw II collaborative strategy in a CSCL environment (Moodle) was designed and implemented to bolster collaboration and communication skills among teachers. Case study research (examination of one group) was conducted in a number of primary schools in Greece. There was both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the chat and forum messages exchanged by the inservice teachers and the results revealed significant development of their collaboration and communication skills as a result of their participation in collaborative tasks.

TECHNOLOGY PEDAGOGY AND CONTENT IN WEB-BASED LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION FOR SECONDARY VOCATIONAL STUDENTS

Students in vocational schools in Greece are less motivated and have low performance in courses demanding academic skills, like language learning with reading and writing tasks (e.g. essay writing). If they were asked, they would say that they prefer to do things rather than study or get involved in traditional classroom language activities. School cannot provide them with language materials and methodology adjusted to their needs. Language teaching and learning is an academic task-oriented subject and teachers find it extremely difficult to arise their students' interest. So, from this point of view there is a gap between need and supply. How to overcome this obstacle? Is it possible that an educational e-Learning environment applying a purpose specific e-pedagogy, will do this? An experimental teaching intervention took place in a Greek Secondary Vocational Lyceum (1st EPA.L Epagelmatiko Lykeio of Lamia city, at 2012-13 school year) in the Greek language curriculum of 11th Grade students so as the researcher to answer the above question. In an activity based situated e-environment for agriculturists, engineers, electricians, car mechanics, students were asked to solve real life technical problems and practise their mother language skills by producing technical textual 'genres' that are likely to use as future professional craftsmen.

Physical fitness normative values for 6–18-year-old Greek boys and girls, using the empirical distribution and the lambda, mu, and sigma statistical method

The aim of the this study was to establish age- and gender-specific physical fitness normative values and to compare percentiles and Z scores values in a large, nationwide sample of Greek children aged 6–18 years. From March 2014 to May 2014, a total of 424,328 boys and girls aged 6–18 years who attended school in Greece were enrolled. The studied sample was representative, in terms of age–sex distribution and geographical region. Physical fitness tests (i.e. 20 m shuttle run test (SRT), standing long jump, sit and reach, sit-ups, and 10 × 5 m SRT) were performed and used to calculate normative values, using the percentiles of the empirical distributions and the lambda, mu, and sigma statistical method. Normative values were presented as tabulated percentiles for five health-related fitness tests based on a large data set comprising 424,328 test performances. Boys typically scored higher than girls on cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and speed/agility, but lower on flexibility (all p values <0.001). Older boys and girls had better performances than younger ones (p < 0.001). Physical fitness tests' performances tended to peak at around the age of 15 years in both sexes. The presented population-based data are the most up-to-date sex- and age-values for the health-related fitness of children and adolescents in Greece and can be used as standard values for fitness screening and surveillance systems and for comparisons among the same health-related fitness scores of children from other countries similar to Greece. Schools need to make efforts to improve the fitness level of the schoolchildren through the physical education curriculum to prevent cardiovascular risk.

Depression in late adolescence: a cross-sectional study in senior high schools in Greece.

BackgroundDepression is a common mental health problem in adolescents worldwide. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence, comorbidity and sociodemographic and socioeconomic associations of depression and depressive symptoms, as well as the relevant health services use in a sample of adolescents in Greece.MethodsFive thousand six hundred fourteen adolescents aged 16–18 years old and attending 25 senior high schools were screened and a stratified random sample of 2,427 were selected for a detailed interview. Psychiatric morbidity was assessed with a fully structured psychiatric interview, the revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R). The use of substances, such as alcohol, nicotine and cannabis, and several sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables have been also assessed.ResultsIn our sample the prevalence rates were 5.67 % for the depressive episode according to ICD-10 and 17.43 % for a broader definition of depressive symptoms. 49.38 % of the adolescents with depressive episode had at least one comorbid anxiety disorder [OR: 7.76 (5.52-10.92)]. Only 17.08 % of the adolescents with depression have visited a doctor due to a psychological problem during the previous year. Anxiety disorders, substance use, female gender, older age, having one sibling, and divorce or separation of the parents were all associated with depression. In addition, the presence of financial difficulties in the family was significantly associated with an increased prevalence of both depression and depressive symptoms.ConclusionsPrevalence and comorbidity rates of depression among Greek adolescents are substantial. Only a small minority of depressed adolescents seek professional help. Significant associations with financial difficulties are reported.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0584-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Teaching Arts Using the Project Method. Students’ Views Towards the Subject of Arts

&lt;p class="2M-body"&gt;The paper refers to the use of project method by students who were attending the first, second and third grade of High School in Greece. We designed and realized a research in order to examine the improvement of students’ attitudes and views towards the subject of Arts using the project method. The subject of the project in the first grade of High School was “the traditional village of Lindos”, the subject of the project in the second grade was “the medieval city of Rhodes” and the subject of the project in the third grade was "the acropolis of Filerimos". All the areas under study were in Rhodes, Greece. Questionnaires were given to the students before and after the teaching interventions which was realized during the first quarter of the school year 2014-2015. The results showed that the use of project method vindicated the goals of the research and improved significantly the students' views and attitudes towards the subject of Arts.&lt;/p&gt;

Primary Teachers’ and Principals’ Attitudes towards Conflict Phenomenon in Schools in Greece

Primary Teachers’ and Principals’ Attitudes towards Conflict Phenomenon in Schools in Greece

Addressing Emotional Difficulties of Primary School Children with the Use of a Primary Intervention Program

The paper presents the evaluation study of a psycho-educational 10 week long primary prevention program for children aged 9-12 years, which took place in 11 main stream schools in Greece with 326 participants in total. The program is delivered through classroom based activities (eg narratives and games), which are based on the cognitive behavioral therapy theory (CBT). The rational of the program is promote emotional resilience, believed to be related to better self-regulation of emotions and improved coping skills in stressful situations. The effectiveness of the program is investigate on the basis of its impact on anxiety measured through the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and on self-esteem measured by the Self Image Profile for children (SIP-C0 Data were collected over a period of one a year and a half school academic year, from a pilot study, with 67 students (32 experimental and 35 control) and from the main study, with 259 students (137 experimental and 122 control) aged 10 years old. We found that self-esteem improved significantly over time, for both the pilot and the main study participants, while the levels of overall anxiety reduced significantly. The successful implementation of the psycho- educational program is presented in terms of its structure and content and its motivation is to adapt to the local, social, cultural and educational context.

Price promotions and marketing within points of sale around high schools in Greece during the 2012 economic crisis

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The Impact of an Environmental Educational Program of a School Garden on Pupils with Intellectual Disabilities—A Comparative Approach

The following research describes an attempt to combine environmental education through outdoor activities in Special Education. It examines the use of a school garden as a learning environment in Special Education by looking at the stances and opinions of 10 pupils, diagnosed with mild to moderate intellectual disability, towards Environmental Education and prognoses barriers that may occur in the learning process. Specifically, the study focuses on the skills and subject knowledge those students have cultivated through a project called “School Garden”, highlighting the ideas pupils have, regarding the position of environmental education in their school curriculum. Using descriptive statistical analysis to compare the two groups of pupils, this research suggests the further practice of Environmental Education in Special Education. The research took place in two Special Education Primary Schools in Greece, while the data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The main conclusions of the research were that students who participated in their school’s environmental educational program seem to be more familiarized with a range of concepts related to the environment and possess skills linked directly to Environmental Education in relation to their peers that did not engage in the project, while pupils who participated in the “School Garden”, unlike their peers, perceived outdoor activities of their school as part of the learning process, in formal education. This study proposes further research to take place in the area of Environmental Education and Special Education.

Teaching mathematics in Inclusion Units of primary schools in Greece: Educational perspectives

Teaching mathematics in Inclusion Units of primary schools in Greece: Educational perspectives