Aspects of quality in Greek day care centres

The quality of the caregiving environment for young infants in day care centres in Athens was evaluated with 3 global measures; ITERS (Harms, Cryer, & Clifford, 1989), PROFILE (Abbott-Shim & Sibley, 1987a), CCFS (Dragonas, Tsiantis & Lambidi, 1995); and I measure of adult-child interaction (Arnett, 1989). Comparisons between the measures revealed great similarity of between the three global measures, but that the specific adult-child interaction measure appeared to be measuring a different aspect of quality of care. The general quality of care was low, lower than for other countries with similar research, and suggests the need for substantial improvement.     

Les Sciences Physiques À L’école Maternelle: Un Cadre Sociocognitif Pour La Construction Des Connaissances ET/OU LE Développement Des Activités Didactiques

NATURAL SCIENCES IN KINDERGARTEN: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING – The present study presents a socio-cognitive framework for the construction of the scientific knowledge of natural phenomena among pre-school children and for the development of science activities at kindergarten. It involves elements from theories of social interaction; social psychology of development and cognitive functioning; and research in natural-science teaching methods which acknowledge the importance and fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognitive operations and learning. The study also presents some of the more significant results of the research carried out on different aspects of this topic. The discussion unfolded here supports the hypothesis that the construction of natural-scientific knowledge at the pre-school age and corresponding scholastic activities are necessary and effective.

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Zusammenfassung NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN IM KINDERGARTEN: EIN SOZIO-KOGNITIVER RAHMEN FÜR LERNEN UND LEHREN – Die vorliegende Studie legt einen sozio-kognitiven Rahmen für die Herausbildung naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens von Vorschulkindern und für die Entwicklung wissenschaftlicher Aktivitäten im Kindergarten vor. Sie bezieht Elemente aus Theorien der gesellschaftlichen Interaktion ein, der Sozialpsychologie von Entwicklung und kognitiver Funktion sowie der Erforschung der Lehrmethoden in der Naturwissenschaft, welche die Bedeutung und grundlegende Rolle der gesellschaftlichen Interaktion in der Entwicklung kognitiver Operationen und des Lernens feststellen. Die Studie legt ferner Forschungsergebnisse vor, die bezüglich verschiedener Aspekte dieses An- satzes erzielt wurden. Die Diskussion, die hier entfaltet wird, unterstützt die Hypothese, dass die Bildung naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens im Vorschulalter und die entsprechenden schulischen Aktivitäten notwendig und wirkungsvoll sind.

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Resumen CIENCIAS NATURALES EN LOS KINDERGARTEN: UN MARCO SOCIO-COGNITIVO PARA EL APRENDIZAJE Y LA ENSEÑANZA – Con este trabajo, el autor presenta un marco socio-cognitivo para la construcción del conocimiento científico de los fenómenos naturales entre los niños en edad preescolar y el desarrollo de actividades relacionadas con ciencias naturales en los kindergarten. Incluye elementos de teorías de interacción social, psicología social del desarrollo, funcionamiento cognitivo e investigación sobre métodos de enseñanza de ciencias naturales que reconozcan la importancia y relevancia fundamental de la interacción social en el desarrollo de procesos cognitivos y del aprendizaje. El estudio también presenta algunos de los resultados más significantes de la investigación realizada sobre diferentes aspectos de esta temática. La discusión desplegada aquí apoya la hipótesis de que la construcción del conocimiento sobre ciencias naturales en la edad preescolar y las correspondientes actividades son necesarias y efectivas.

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Résumé Cet article présente un cadre théorique sociocognitif consacré à l’étude de la construction des connaissances des phénomènes physiques chez les enfants d’âge préscolaire ainsi qu’au développement des activités scientifiques à l’école maternelle. Ce cadre se compose d’une articulation des éléments théoriques produits par les théories de l’interactionnisme social, de la psychologie sociale du développement et du fonctionnement cognitif, et par les résultats de la recherche en didactique des sciences physiques qui, en général, reconnaissent l’importance et le rôle fondamental de l’interaction sociale dans le développement d’opérations cognitives et d’apprentissages. Cet article présente également quelques-uns des résultats les plus significatifs des recherches effectuées sur différents aspects de l’approche choisie. La discussion de ces résultats peut conduire à rendre claire l’hypothèse selon laquelle tant la construction des connaissances des phénomènes physiques que la création d’activités scolaires sont nécessaires et efficaces à l’âge préscolaire.

     

Mindfulness and discussing “thorny” issues in the classroom

Being in the moment, showing compassion, being non-judgmental, acknowledging deep emotional challenges without getting stuck: these are mindfulness characteristics important to us as teachers, yet not often included in teacher preparation. These concerns become magnified when we focus on difficult knowledge and thorny issues, like topics related to gender and race. Using a sociocultural framework, we address how mindfulness, heuristics, and other contemplative practices can be adopted to create safe, supporting, and healing spaces for such complex, often emotionally painful discussions. Participant narratives are used extensively to provide a voice to those marginalized or hurt. Drawing from these narratives and their experience in discussing thorny issues, we put forth possible solutions and interventions that can create spaces that encourage and support critical discourse through mindful practices. The development of a heuristic for discussing thorny issues whose characteristics can be adopted by interested teachers and educators to help frame and mediate this type of difficult discussion is an outcome of this research.     

Environmental education and the science of ecology: exploration of an uneasy relationship

While modern science is receiving harsh criticism within the framework of environmental education, at the same time ecology is presented as an alternative science, characterized as ‘holistic’ and ‘non‐exploitative’. However, many of the characteristics of the science of ecology do not comply with its characterization as alternative science. Furthermore, ecology is a science with competing paradigms, provisional theories, incommensurable worldviews, and extensive theoretical and methodological debates. The treatment of the science of ecology in environmental education is not taking into account the relevant evidence, resulting in a quite strong positivistic and dogmatic educational approach. The importance of approaches that comply more with a post‐positivistic account of education are discussed in the light of the possible contribution of environmental education to science education discourse.     

Creating and using knowledge: an analysis of the differentiated nature of workplace learning environments

This paper argues that contemporary workplaces give rise to many different forms of knowledge creation and use, and, as a consequence to different forms of learning and pedagogical approaches. Some of these are utilised to the benefit of the organisation and employees (though not, necessarily, in a reciprocal manner), but others are buried within everyday workplace activity. The discussion builds on earlier work where it was argued that organisations differ in the way they create and manage themselves as learning environments, with some conceptualised as ‘expansive’ in the sense that their employees experience diverse forms of participation and, hence, are more likely to foster learning at work. By studying the way in which work is organised (including the organisation of physical and virtual spaces), this research is suggesting that it is possible to expose some of this learning activity as well as to identify examples where new (or refined) knowledge has been created. In this regard, it is argued that it is important to break down conceptual hierarchies that presuppose that learning is restricted to certain types of employee and/or parts of an organisation and to re‐examine knowledge as applied to the workplace. The conclusion focuses on how such an approach, and in particular the use of a productive system analysis, is strengthening the concept of expansive and restrictive learning environments.     

Kindergarten Children Discussing the Fairness of Probabilistic Games: The Creation of a Primary Discursive Community

In this paper we analyse the language used by kindergarten children and their teacher while they discuss the fairness of two games that involved the concept of chance. Their discussions show that the children are able to overcome their primary intuitions concerning the fairness of a game and to comprehend the important role of materials. The children mostly used counting strategies in order to justify their opinion; this reveals the establishment of a primary discursive community based on the premise that each opinion should be justified in order to be accepted by the other children and the teacher.

Parental requests for evaluation and authorities’ responses: issues of accord

The present study investigated the reasons of parents request for the initial evaluation to determine their children’s special educational needs (SEN) and the state authorities’ response in the Greek educational system. For the needs of the present study, 250 case files were randomly selected from a state Centre for Differential Diagnosis and Support, which is responsible for the identification, evaluation and intervention for students with SEN. Various data were recorded, such as parental reason for requesting the evaluation, the official designation for each case, whether the parent accepted the evaluation results and whether any individualised intervention plan or other recommendations were specified. The analysis suggested that most cases involved students with learning disabilities, although a certain degree of disagreement in the classification of students was observed. For the majority of cases, parents accepted the official diagnosis; however, the state centre did not offer an intervention plan to benefit the students in the majority of the cases. Implications based on the present study findings are considered.     

Factors,issues and interdependencies in the incorporation of a Web 2.0 based learning environment in higher education

This work investigates the effect a Web 2.0 learning environment may have in higher education in adding value to the students’ existing competencies. The major issues that this work examines are whether the incorporation of a Web 2.0 environment in higher education has an effect on the students’ performance and what are the significant factors that should be taken into account in the deployment of these technologies to achieve the maximum possible benefits and whether and how they correlate to each other. These factors are derived from the students’ views on the use of technology in a university course deployment and from the students’ personal opinions about a pilot course in a Web 2.0 learning environment. Although the results indicate no direct effect on the students’ performance, significant factors have been revealed via a thorough assessment, which has been performed in the context of a semester–long course, utilizing statistical process control techniques. The derived factors are namely: “Technology as an educational reinforcement”, “Technology as a tool to enhance comprehension” and “Enhancement of student interest and experience”, while in the second one “Completeness of the educational approach”, “Satisfaction from the educational approach” and “Course demands”. These factors can then form the basis for a feedback processes and a monitoring mechanism for a continuously updated educational process.     

Greek Day Care Centres' Quality,Caregivers' Behaviour and Children's Development La Qualité des Crèches en Grèce,le Comportement des Institutrices,et le Développement des Enfants La Calidad de las Guarderías Infantiles Griegas,el Comportamiento de las Maestras de Educación Infantil y el Desarrollo de los Niños

The 'global' quality of the caregiving environment for young infants and toddlers in day care centres in Athens, the 'structural' and 'dynamic' features in terms of group size, the adult child ratio, the caregiving style and, finally, the interaction patterns developed between the caregivers and the children, were all factors evaluated for potential developmental effects. Participants in the study were 60 toddlers, experiencing full-time (more than 20 hours/week) day care provision, and for at least 6 months out-of-home care, while attending 25 day care centres located in the greater Athens area. Children's assessments included measures of cognitive, language and socio-emotional development. Interviews and observational techniques were used to assess the quality of the day caregiving environment and the interaction processes between caregivers and the children. Children's development was considered in terms of the quality of out-of-home care experience. It was found that the course of development could be predicted by the overall day care centre quality index as measured by the ITERS scale, with the separate contribution of some other variables according to the examined developmental aspect. Dans le cadre d'une recherche concernant les influences possibles sur le développement des enfants, nous avons étudié les facteurs suivants: l'évaluation 'globale' de la qualité de l'environnement des services de soin et d'éducation dans les crèches d'Athènes, les caractéristiques 'structurelles' et 'dynamiques' concernant la taille du groupe d'enfants en classe, l'analogie institutrices/enfants, le style de soin et de comportement de l' institutrice, enfin, le style d'interaction entre institutrices et enfants. Dans cette recherche ont participé 60 enfants de 18 mois, fréquentant 25 crèches de la région d'Athènes pour plus de 20 heures par semaine et pour une durée d'au moins 6 mois au moment de la recherche. L'appréciation du développement des enfants concernait le domaine cognitif, langagier et socio-émotionel. Pour l'évaluation de la qualité de l'environnement des crèches et les processus d'interaction entre institutrices et enfants, nous nous sommes servi de méthodes d'interview et d'observation. Le développement des enfants a éte´ évalué en fonction de la qualité de l'environnement des crèches. Nous avons conclu que le développement est corrélé avec la qualité globale de la crèche, telle qu'elle a été calculé avec l'échelle ITERS. Par ailleurs, nous avons observé la contribution d'autres variables selon le secteur étudié du développement. La apreciación "global" de la calidad del ambiente de la prestación de servicios de cuidados y educación a los niños en las guarderías infantiles de Atenas, las características "estructurales" y "dinámicos" que conciernen al número de los niños en la clase, a la proporción maestras/niños, al estilo de la prestación del cuidado y del comportamiento de las maestras y, en fin, al esquema de interacción entre maestras y niños han sido los factores que se han examinado en cuanto a su possible influencia sobre el desarrollo de los niños. En nuestra investigación participaron 60 niños de 18 meses de edad que frecuentaban 25 guarderías en la región de Atenas durante más de 20 horas a la semana y por lo menos 6 meses hasta la investigación. La apreciación del desarrollo de los niños se refiere al sector cognitivo, verbal y socio-emocional. Para la evaluación de la calidad del ambiente de las guarderías y para los procedimientos de intercambio entre maestras y niños se han utilizado las técnicas de la entervista y de la observación. El desarrollo de los niños se ha apreciado en relación con la calidad del ambiente de las guarderías. Ha resultado evidente que el curso del desarrollo guarda relación con la calidad general de la guardería, la cual se ha evaluado según la escala ITERS, mientras se ha notado también el aporte de otras variables, según el aspecto del desarrollo estudiado.     

Science and creationism: a response to Kenneth Tobin

In his December editorial on Michael Reiss, Kenneth Tobin (Cult Stud Sci Educ 3:793–798, 2008), raises some very important questions for science and science teachers regarding science education and the teaching of creationism in the classroom. I agree with him that students’ creationist ideologies should be treated not as misconceptions but as worldviews. Because of creationism’s peculiarly strong political links though, I argue that such discussion must address three critical and interconnected issues, including the uncertain state of teaching evolution in public schools nationally, the political convergence of the creationist political beliefs with bigoted worldviews, and creationism’s inherent contrariness to science and human progress. I suggest that we as science educators therefore not consider all sides to be equally right and to instead take side against the politics of creationism. I also argue that we need much more serious discussion on how to better teach science to students who hold creationist worldviews, and that science educators such as Reiss need to be part of that.