Papers by MARIA AMPARTZAKI
Διδασκαλία των Φυσικών Επιστημών: Έρευνα και Πράξη, 2023
Η παρούσα έρευνα μελετά τις αντιλήψεις εκπαιδευτικών, γονιών, φοιτητών/τριών παιδαγωγικού τμήματο... more Η παρούσα έρευνα μελετά τις αντιλήψεις εκπαιδευτικών, γονιών, φοιτητών/τριών παιδαγωγικού τμήματος και επαγγελματιών STEM και Τεχνών από έξι χώρες (Ελλάδα, Βουλγαρία, Λιθουανία, Πολωνία, Ρουμανία και Τουρκία) σχετικά με την προσέγγιση STEAM. Συγκεκριμένα, η έρευνα, εκτός από τις ανάγκες των εκπαιδευτικών για τη συγκεκριμένη προσέγγιση, εστιάζει στο βαθμό ετοιμότητάς τους να την εντάξουν στις διδασκαλίες τους και στις δυσκολίες που συναντούν κατά την εφαρμογή της. Επιπρόσθετα, γίνεται προσπάθεια ανίχνευσης των αντιλήψεών τους σχετικά με το ρόλο που μπορεί να έχει στην αύξηση της συμμετοχής των κοριτσιών και παιδιών από άλλες ευάλωτες κοινωνικές ομάδες στα μαθήματα STEM. Μέσα από την ποιοτική ανάλυση των δεδομένων φάνηκε ότι όλοι/ες οι συμμετέχοντες/ουσες είχαν θετική στάση απέναντι στην προσέγγιση STEAM καθώς, όπως ανέφεραν, αποτελεί μία μαθησιακή προσέγγιση η
οποία ενθαρρύνει την ενεργή εμπλοκή των μαθητών/τριών στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία ανεξάρτητα από το φύλο τους, συμβάλλει στην αύξηση της δημιουργικότητας και της αυτοπεποίθησής τους ενώ συντελεί και στη βελτίωση της κοινωνικό-συναισθηματικής τους ανάπτυξης. Όσον αφορά στις δυσκολίες που ανέφεραν οι εκπαιδευτικοί ότι συναντούν κατά την εφαρμογή της, υπογραμμίστηκε η έλλειψη κατάλληλων εκπαιδευτικών πόρων, η έλλειψη σχετικής εμπειρίας, εκπαίδευσης και επιμόρφωσης καθώς και δυσκολίες λόγω των προγραμμάτων σπουδών που ισχύουν σε κάθε χώρα. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί του δείγματος τόνισαν την ανάγκη για επιμόρφωση πάνω στην προσέγγιση STEAM και την παροχή κατάλληλων εκπαιδευτικών υλικών και πόρων. Οι φοιτητές/φοιτήτριες παιδαγωγικού τμήματος του δείγματος, υπογράμμισαν τη σημασία ύπαρξης περισσότερων μαθημάτων STEAM κατά τη διάρκεια των προπτυχιακών σπουδών τους.
The present study examines the perceptions of teachers, parents, pedagogical students and STEM and Arts professionals from six countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania and Turkey) about the STEAM approach. Specifically, the study focuses on teachers' needs for the approach, their readiness to integrate it into their teaching and the difficulties they encounter in its implementation. In addition, an attempt is made to detect their perceptions about the role it can play in increasing the participation of girls and children from other vulnerable social groups in STEM lessons. Through the qualitative analysis of the data, it appeared that all participants had a positive attitude towards the STEAM approach as, as they mentioned, it is a learning approach that
which encourages the active involvement of students in the learning process regardless of their gender, contributes to their creativity and self-confidence, and contributes to their socio-emotional development. With regard to the difficulties that teachers reported encountering in its implementation, the lack of appropriate educational resources, lack of relevant experience, training and education, as well as difficulties due to the curricula in force in each country, were highlighted. The teachers in the sample stressed the need for training on the STEAM approach and the provision of appropriate educational materials and resources. The education students in the sample stressed the importance of having more STEAM courses during their undergraduate studies.
Education sciences, Feb 18, 2024
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Early Childhood Education - Innovative Pedagogical Approaches in the Post-modern Era
This chapter presents a survey focusing on pre-primary and primary STEAM education in six countri... more This chapter presents a survey focusing on pre-primary and primary STEAM education in six countries. The survey sought to identify: (a) the perceptions of teachers, parents, and professionals from STEM and the Arts (hereafter STEAM professionals) about the STEAM approach; (b) teachers’ training needs; (c) teachers’, parents’, STEAM professionals’ perceptions of the value of the STEAM’s role in increasing the participation of young girls and disadvantaged students in STEM. Data was collected through focus-group interviews and were qualitatively analyzed. Results showed that teachers, STEAM professionals, and most of the parents had positive perceptions of the STEAM approach; they believed that it increases children’s motivation and engagement in learning, regardless of the child’s gender; it increases creativity, self-confidence and offers good learning opportunities for both boys and girls, taking into consideration their emotional and social abilities. The main difficulties identif...
European Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 2024
This article discusses the challenges faced by professional kindergarten teachers (PTs) and prese... more This article discusses the challenges faced by professional kindergarten teachers (PTs) and preservice kindergarten teachers (PSTs) during their participation in the ABATAC project, which took place during the academic year 2021–2022. The project’s aim was to provide astronomy training to PTs and PSTs, enabling them to plan and deliver astronomy lessons for young children. A combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data was conducted to comprehend the difficulties encountered by the participants during their training and implementation in classrooms. The research showed that ABATAC had an overall positive impact and did not present significant difficulties to the participants. However, some challenges that stood out included developing age-appropriate astronomy lessons for children and implementing ABATAC’s methodological approaches. Although the participants had limited knowledge of astronomy concepts and lacked experience in teaching astronomy activities, their confidence and self-efficacy in delivering astronomy activities improved after the ABATAC training. Additionally, some other issues, such as navigating the ABATAC course, were also brought up. The program appears to have contributed to an increase in the participants’ readiness and confidence to organize and implement astronomy activities in their teaching.
Pedagogy, Learning, and Creativity, 2023
Studying local history can be approached in a modern way that encourages young students to utiliz... more Studying local history can be approached in a modern way that encourages young students to utilize the methods and skills of a historian. This includes collecting, recording, comparing, and interpreting data from primary and secondary resources. Inquiry-based and art-based learning are effective frameworks for exploring local history. Students can gain a deeper understanding of the subject by focusing on inquiry, fieldwork, thorough recording, and constructing historical narratives based on critical interpretation of all information, including opposing and alternative views. Art-based learning allows students to analyze the forms and social aspects of artifacts, constructions, events, and phenomena and then express their knowledge and understanding in various multimodal and symbolic ways. It’s essential for children to take the initiative, and be involved in the learning process, and work in collaborative environments that support their free thinking and exploration. This approach is conducive to critical thinking and encourages creativity in learning history. This chapter outlines the conditions that define inquiry and art-based learning environments and offers a tool with practical suggestions for pre-primary and primary teachers to develop their local history lessons. The tool covers four major dimensions: learning interactions, understanding historical times, art-based learning, and practical strategies specific to local history.
Early Childhood Education - Innovative Pedagogical Approaches in the Post-modern Era [Working Title]
Twenty-first century demands students with critical thinking, digital and other soft skills, and ... more Twenty-first century demands students with critical thinking, digital and other soft skills, and capable of self-directed and self-determined learning. This chapter presents an educational design project, which focused on the development of a history online course for children of pre-primary level and the first grades of primary school, based on the constructivist paradigm of learning. Educational design research was carried out to explore how young children can respond to the demands of a contemporary online course, pursue the online course with growing confidence and independence, and earn history in a meaningful way, while developing twenty-first century skills at the same time. Data were collected by quantitative and qualitative methods and analysis showed that both pre-primary and primary school children responded remarkably well and managed to complete the online course with minimum parental support. They improved their knowledge and displayed critical thinking skills. Childre...
Current technology does not meet the needs and expectations of instructional designers and teache... more Current technology does not meet the needs and expectations of instructional designers and teachers to collaborate on creating and using effective instructional designs to keep learners motivated and maximize the learning outcome. On the one hand, the IMS Learning Design standard is very complex for instructional designers and teachers to understand and use as a common language. On the other hand current tools, especially those close to the standard are not highly usable. This paper presents Octopus, an environment supporting collaboration between instructional designers and educators for the development of educational templates and scenarios that can be used and reused in different educational contexts. Octopus pays special attention in the users' needs while it stays compatible with standards. Thus, usability studies have been performed from the earliest development steps, while a number of workshops have been organized with the participation of pedagogy experts and teachers. A significant number of educational templates and scenarios have been developed with Octopus as well, within ongoing EU projects.
International Forum on …, 2009
The present paper examines how new electronic services implemented in a state-owned airline, name... more The present paper examines how new electronic services implemented in a state-owned airline, named Olympic Airlines, and if this had followed the eight phases of change that JP Kotter (1995) suggests. The conclusions of the present may be useful to other airlines and ...
Population Medicine
INTRODUCTION Consensus on the international mobility (IM) competencies for students and teachers ... more INTRODUCTION Consensus on the international mobility (IM) competencies for students and teachers has not yet been achieved in the European context. We aimed to establish a set of core IM competencies essential for effective internationalization and mobility, and make suggestions for their implementation among higher education institutions in European countries. METHODS The study employed an expert consensus design approach, including a narrative literature review, expert scoring, and a Delphi survey. The review identified 28 relevant research articles published between 2010 and 2021. Based on content analysis, an initial set of 40 competencies was developed, which was then scored by external experts. The competencies were prioritized and refined through the Delphi technique, resulting in a final set of core IM competencies for both teachers and students.
Advances in Mobile Learning Educational Research
Numerous scholars have emphasized the advantages of travelling abroad to enhance one's skills... more Numerous scholars have emphasized the advantages of travelling abroad to enhance one's skills. Nevertheless, the pandemic has revealed the immense importance of digital skills in every aspect of our current information-based society. There is an increased demand for both physical and digital workplaces. As a result, universities must modify their educational programs to meet the requirements of employers and equip their students with the abilities and proficiencies essential to navigate this new era of the hybrid work environment. In this study, we focused on developing digital competence levels of international students and teachers during an International Week event using an e-toolkit and their acceptance of that digital tool following a mixed-method approach. Our results showed significant improvement in some dimensions of their digital competencies associated with digital content creation and problem-solving. Additionally, valuable results were shown regarding participants&#...
Early Childhood Education - Innovative Pedagogical Approaches in the Post-modern Era
This chapter presents a survey focusing on pre-primary and primary STEAM education in six countri... more This chapter presents a survey focusing on pre-primary and primary STEAM education in six countries. The survey sought to identify: (a) the perceptions of teachers, parents, and professionals from STEM and the Arts (hereafter STEAM professionals) about the STEAM approach; (b) teachers’ training needs; (c) teachers’, parents’, STEAM professionals’ perceptions of the value of the STEAM’s role in increasing the participation of young girls and disadvantaged students in STEM. Data was collected through focus-group interviews and were qualitatively analyzed. Results showed that teachers, STEAM professionals, and most of the parents had positive perceptions of the STEAM approach; they believed that it increases children’s motivation and engagement in learning, regardless of the child’s gender; it increases creativity, self-confidence and offers good learning opportunities for both boys and girls, taking into consideration their emotional and social abilities. The main difficulties identif...
Advances in Mobile Learning Educational Research
Universities and educational organizations aim to bring an innovative approach to internationaliz... more Universities and educational organizations aim to bring an innovative approach to internationalization in higher education in the digital environment. They focus on enhancing and cultivating the students' communication and intercultural competencies and building self-confidence in an international environment. This study presents an overview of the existing educative strategies and innovative interventions used for integrating/developing International Mobility (IM hereafter) competencies in higher education. For this purpose, we searched various databases following the MOOSE Guidelines for Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Observational Studies in the last five years. Our findings reveal the literature gap regarding teaching and learning in the content of International Mobility and extend the possibilities for future research directions.
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
The Virtual Teachers' Toolbox's (VTT-BOX.EU) aims to create a special virtual and sophisticated t... more The Virtual Teachers' Toolbox's (VTT-BOX.EU) aims to create a special virtual and sophisticated tool for teachers to guide them in developing open, online, flexible and technology enhanced education and learning (OOFAT). The paper presents the pedagogical and quality framework which embeds the Toolbox which refers to international frameworks that need to permute e-learning. Quality in pedagogy and technological provision focuses today more on developing the learner's autonomy, collaborative skills and self-evaluation. Technology is expected to create a well-fitting "learning offer" tailored to the typical behaviour and needs of the modern students. a
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
Virtual Teachers' Toolbox aims to create a special virtual toolbox for teachers as a sophisticate... more Virtual Teachers' Toolbox aims to create a special virtual toolbox for teachers as a sophisticated tool for developing open, online, flexible and technology enhanced education (OOFAT learning). This toolbox assists teachers/trainers in the course creation by offering a pedagogical framework with a special student's view, a quality enhancement framework and a new self-evaluation technic, the so-called mandala evaluation. This project uses a strategic cooperation between formal and non-formal/informal educational providers using ICT based teaching and the enhancement of digital integration in learning. It will be enhancing teachers' professional development and support students' acquisition of values, skills and competences. Additional, pilot courses as samples of proven praxis will be produced and be published as Open Educational Resources (OERs).
STEM, Robotics, Mobile Apps in Early Childhood and Primary Education
Education Sciences, 2021
The transformative agenda of sustainability education constitutes the focus of early-years educat... more The transformative agenda of sustainability education constitutes the focus of early-years education. In quality sustainability educational projects, children are supported to draw links between nature and society and relate to the studied phenomena. Is this methodological approach realized in educational programs for the early years? The present work presents some of the significant findings of a case study on implementing a water project in early-year settings around Europe. It explores the characteristics and the methodological approaches the project implementation developed. Three types of implementation are derived from the qualitative analysis of data and reveal that there are still cases in which sustainability projects are focused on a descriptive approach rather than critical inquiry and analysis. In this sense, the need for educational designs that help children deepen their understanding of sustainability issues and become empowered citizens who will work for a sustainabl...
International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2018
Over the years, researchers and educators have used various forms of ICT to deliver innovative id... more Over the years, researchers and educators have used various forms of ICT to deliver innovative ideas and teach young children. Technologies are always perceived as catalysts which can enliven the process of teaching and learning. The present study presents, an experimental teaching intervention, which seeks to examine whether early childhood children aged five to seven can develop an understanding of the concept of gravity and knowledge about the planets using hands-on activities, as well as smart mobile devices and the programming environment of ScratchJr. The need to use ScratchJr emerged from the lack of developmentally appropriate software suitable for digital creation and programming in preschool education. The results of the study were quite encouraging as the children started developing an understanding of the concept of gravity, and there was an improvement in their existing knowledge of the planets.
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Papers by MARIA AMPARTZAKI
οποία ενθαρρύνει την ενεργή εμπλοκή των μαθητών/τριών στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία ανεξάρτητα από το φύλο τους, συμβάλλει στην αύξηση της δημιουργικότητας και της αυτοπεποίθησής τους ενώ συντελεί και στη βελτίωση της κοινωνικό-συναισθηματικής τους ανάπτυξης. Όσον αφορά στις δυσκολίες που ανέφεραν οι εκπαιδευτικοί ότι συναντούν κατά την εφαρμογή της, υπογραμμίστηκε η έλλειψη κατάλληλων εκπαιδευτικών πόρων, η έλλειψη σχετικής εμπειρίας, εκπαίδευσης και επιμόρφωσης καθώς και δυσκολίες λόγω των προγραμμάτων σπουδών που ισχύουν σε κάθε χώρα. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί του δείγματος τόνισαν την ανάγκη για επιμόρφωση πάνω στην προσέγγιση STEAM και την παροχή κατάλληλων εκπαιδευτικών υλικών και πόρων. Οι φοιτητές/φοιτήτριες παιδαγωγικού τμήματος του δείγματος, υπογράμμισαν τη σημασία ύπαρξης περισσότερων μαθημάτων STEAM κατά τη διάρκεια των προπτυχιακών σπουδών τους.
The present study examines the perceptions of teachers, parents, pedagogical students and STEM and Arts professionals from six countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania and Turkey) about the STEAM approach. Specifically, the study focuses on teachers' needs for the approach, their readiness to integrate it into their teaching and the difficulties they encounter in its implementation. In addition, an attempt is made to detect their perceptions about the role it can play in increasing the participation of girls and children from other vulnerable social groups in STEM lessons. Through the qualitative analysis of the data, it appeared that all participants had a positive attitude towards the STEAM approach as, as they mentioned, it is a learning approach that
which encourages the active involvement of students in the learning process regardless of their gender, contributes to their creativity and self-confidence, and contributes to their socio-emotional development. With regard to the difficulties that teachers reported encountering in its implementation, the lack of appropriate educational resources, lack of relevant experience, training and education, as well as difficulties due to the curricula in force in each country, were highlighted. The teachers in the sample stressed the need for training on the STEAM approach and the provision of appropriate educational materials and resources. The education students in the sample stressed the importance of having more STEAM courses during their undergraduate studies.
οποία ενθαρρύνει την ενεργή εμπλοκή των μαθητών/τριών στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία ανεξάρτητα από το φύλο τους, συμβάλλει στην αύξηση της δημιουργικότητας και της αυτοπεποίθησής τους ενώ συντελεί και στη βελτίωση της κοινωνικό-συναισθηματικής τους ανάπτυξης. Όσον αφορά στις δυσκολίες που ανέφεραν οι εκπαιδευτικοί ότι συναντούν κατά την εφαρμογή της, υπογραμμίστηκε η έλλειψη κατάλληλων εκπαιδευτικών πόρων, η έλλειψη σχετικής εμπειρίας, εκπαίδευσης και επιμόρφωσης καθώς και δυσκολίες λόγω των προγραμμάτων σπουδών που ισχύουν σε κάθε χώρα. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί του δείγματος τόνισαν την ανάγκη για επιμόρφωση πάνω στην προσέγγιση STEAM και την παροχή κατάλληλων εκπαιδευτικών υλικών και πόρων. Οι φοιτητές/φοιτήτριες παιδαγωγικού τμήματος του δείγματος, υπογράμμισαν τη σημασία ύπαρξης περισσότερων μαθημάτων STEAM κατά τη διάρκεια των προπτυχιακών σπουδών τους.
The present study examines the perceptions of teachers, parents, pedagogical students and STEM and Arts professionals from six countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania and Turkey) about the STEAM approach. Specifically, the study focuses on teachers' needs for the approach, their readiness to integrate it into their teaching and the difficulties they encounter in its implementation. In addition, an attempt is made to detect their perceptions about the role it can play in increasing the participation of girls and children from other vulnerable social groups in STEM lessons. Through the qualitative analysis of the data, it appeared that all participants had a positive attitude towards the STEAM approach as, as they mentioned, it is a learning approach that
which encourages the active involvement of students in the learning process regardless of their gender, contributes to their creativity and self-confidence, and contributes to their socio-emotional development. With regard to the difficulties that teachers reported encountering in its implementation, the lack of appropriate educational resources, lack of relevant experience, training and education, as well as difficulties due to the curricula in force in each country, were highlighted. The teachers in the sample stressed the need for training on the STEAM approach and the provision of appropriate educational materials and resources. The education students in the sample stressed the importance of having more STEAM courses during their undergraduate studies.