multilateral project: strengthening activity – oriented interaction and growth in the early years...
TRANSCRIPT
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!