MULTILATERAL PROJECT: Strengthening Activity – Oriented Interaction and

Growth iN the EArLy Years and TransitionS

WORK PACKAGE: Exploitation

Kalliope Vrinioti, Jeny Kopsachili

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

University of Western Macedonia Greece

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

THE GREEK SIGNALS' APPROACH

An introductory note

In recent years there has been a strong

controversy between the state and a large

number of teachers, because of an attempt

from the part of the state to apply the law for

teacher evaluation, despite teachers’ strong

reaction against evaluation.

A climate of division and “suspicion”

This strong contradiction has created a climate

of division and suspicion in many Greek

schools, which results into teachers’

considering as "suspect" any researcher

wishing to work and collaborate with them in

the school environment, because of their fear

of being evaluated indirectly. Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

Teachers’ hesitation to cooperate

This abovementioned situation has limited the

number of schools that were available to

cooperate with us in relation to SIGNALS

project.

Thus, instead of cooperating with two different

schools and four classes, as we had originally

planned, we were ‘obliged’ to carry out our

project in only one class with 25 children.

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

The Innovative Interventions

The Greek SIGNALS project was designed on the basis of

Conducting a record and analysis of 45 1st grade children’s perceptions and preferences regarding classroom interactiona record and analysis of 45 first grade children’s perceptions and preferences regarding classroom interaction record and analysis of 45 first grade childa record and analysis of 45 first grade children’s perceptions and preferences regarding classroom interactionren’s perceptions and preferences regarding classroom interaction

Content analysis of the Greek Language Curriculum of primary education.(1st and 2nd grade)

Interviews conducted with children, parents and teachers

“School and Social Life”

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

12 interventions carried out in an “task - based” framework

Decisi

on

mak

ing

Active

participation

CooperationSolving

problems

Cooperative activities

The signals-interventions have been included in the school

weekly timetable.

In this way, it could be tested whether

our project is generally applicable to

the second grade of Greek schools,

despite the expected difficulties.

Difficulties experienced while implementing the interventions

A number of teachers are familiar with

modern concepts, such as ''Participation",

"Co desision", "Communication",

"Cooperation", "Activity-Oriented Interaction“,

namely that they constitute an educational

process and a tool for democracy.

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

Difficulties: A two-faced and contradictory procedure

On the one hand,

teachers agree, on a theoretical basis

on the other hand,

in their teaching practice they fall back to

old habits, because they believe that

the modern conception of participation

is time consuming.Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

Encountering problems/difficulties

In an attempt to reduce this

contradiction, we focus on group work

with the purpose to develop children’s

cooperative and interactive skills, and

to create an enjoyable and playful

environment resulting into immediate

outcomes.Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

GROUP WORK

develop children’s cooperative and interactive skills

create an enjoyable and playful

environment

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

Pre – task stage a problem solving activity is presented to the children

Cycle stage

the children- in groups- have to work together on a

common task, interact with each other during “problem-solving” negotiation, and find

solutions

Completion of the task

the leader of each group announces their decision and

presents the process of solving the problem to the

teacher and the classmates

Budapest Meeting February 3-4, 2015

Collaborative learning and interactionThe children had a lot of discussion and found a way to

work

things out to their mutual understanding and cooperation. “George and I had an argument on how we could build a

pyramid. I suggested that we should do it both ways in order

to see which is the better one, and George found it fair

enough. After having built the pyramid, we realized that

George's idea was not so good, because the pyramid was

unstable ,so we did it my way”.

Conclusion

Concluding, we mention that the class

teacher, who cooperates with us in

realising SIGNALS objectives, had never

implemented such a cooperative

approach in a task-based framework in

her teaching context, because she

believed that it is time consuming and

does not promote cognitive skills.

Conclusion

However, she declared that during our

fifth month cooperation she has been so

satisfied with the outcomes of the

interventions that she has been

implementing this cooperative approach

in a task-based framework to other

school subjects, apart from SIGNALS

interventions.

Thank you for your attention!