Papers by Alexandros Georgopoulos
Environmental Education Research
29th Conference of European Early Childhood Education Research Association, 2019
13th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), 2019
Postmodernism, Education, Environmental Education Alexandros Georgopoulos [email protected] ... more Postmodernism, Education, Environmental Education Alexandros Georgopoulos [email protected] Early Childhood Education Department, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece ABSTRACT Postmodernism rejects rationality, science and the concept of the inevitable progress which would continue to happen in order for humans to dominate over Nature. The notion of value-free, therefore "true" knowledge, produced by the scientific method is also criticized on the ground that knowledge claims are entangled with power interests,a fact that modernism tries to conceal. Therefore Truth becomes meaningless, and even dangerous.Development of EE in Greece during the recent thirty years seems to strongly dispute the idea of progress and brings EE in touch with the postmodern condition by promoting experiential learning. In agreement with the postmodernist agenda dismissing knowledge and truth as narratives connected to the elite establishment working to maintain its power, experien...
Solution methods for the minimum sum-of-squares clustering (MSSC) problem are analyzed and develo... more Solution methods for the minimum sum-of-squares clustering (MSSC) problem are analyzed and developed in this paper. Based on the DCA (Difference-of-Convex functions Algorithms) in DC programming and recently established qualitative properties of the MSSC problem [11], we suggest several improvements of the incremental algorithms of Ordin and Bagirov [22] and of Bagirov [4]. Properties of the new algorithms are obtained and preliminary numerical tests of those on real-world databases are shown. Finite convergence, convergence, and the rate of convergence of solution methods for the MSSC problem are presented for the first time in our paper. This Part 1 is devoted to the incremental heuristic clustering algorithm of Ordin and Bagirov and the modified version proposed herein.
The objective of this qualitative research work is to detect the needs, aspirations and feelings ... more The objective of this qualitative research work is to detect the needs, aspirations and feelings of pupils experiencing local environmental problems and elaborate them through the prism of a socially critical educational approach. Semi-structured focus group interviews are used as a research method applied to four primary schools located near places facing environmental problems. The primary schools and their corresponding environmental problems were Agios Vasileios near the degraded lakes Volvi and Koronia, Tagarades and the 3 rd primary school of Katerini located next to landfill sites, plus the 6 th primary school of Kordelio which suffers from pollution caused by a nearby oil refinery. The way these problems affect the pupils and their engagement with environmental education is explored. Conventional EE practices are criticized for not being able to focus on pupils' feelings and experiences and for reproducing disempowerment. At the same time, the potential for a socially cr...
European Journal of Education Studies, 2018
Non-Directive Intervention (NDI) is an experiential method of group facilitation, founded by Mich... more Non-Directive Intervention (NDI) is an experiential method of group facilitation, founded by Michel Lobrot. According to this method, the group facilitators intervene in a non-directive way. The aim of this research was to investigate the influence of the NDI on the personal growth, general self-efficacy and self-esteem of pre-service preschool teachers. Ninety-three undergraduate students participated in the research. Results of the present research work showed that students’ personal growth, general self-efficacy and self-esteem were enhanced at the end of the sessions. Results are discussed within the NDI experiential learning framework. Article visualizations:
Coping with environmental crisis cannot but presuppose a change in the values adopted by modern m... more Coping with environmental crisis cannot but presuppose a change in the values adopted by modern man. Both ecocentric values associated with creating a caring relationship with nature, and the development of empathy, can become vehicles of transformation towards a society based on ecological principles. In connection with these issues, an Environmental Education program for preschoolers was designed and implemented in the classroom. The evaluation shows that preschool children can be interested in non-human beings, can feel the need to protect them, and ascribe them intrinsic value.
Επιστήμες Αγωγής, 2017
Focusing on the views of the participants, the study examines the contribution of experiential ed... more Focusing on the views of the participants, the study examines the contribution of experiential education for the effectiveness of a primary prevention intervention aiming to develop the pupils' emotional understanding. Data was collected via multiple methods (interviews, diaries, participant observation) from all the participants (pupils, teacher, parents) in three phases (during, after the intervention and seven months later) and was qualitatively analysed using thematic analysis. The participants' rhetoric identified the importance of experience for learning as well as the effectiveness of experiential education as a teaching method in relation to (a) the difference between experiential and typical education, (b) the active learning opportunities children were provided with through playful activities, (c) the partic-ipants' mutual exchange of experience leading to the formation of a safe and trustful environment and (d) the pupils' appropriation of the reflective process in their everyday life.
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Papers by Alexandros Georgopoulos