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To solve problems, specific skills are needed. Critical thinking can help develop such skills. It can contribute to improving problem-solving skills, developing communication skills and cultivating decision making skills. Critical thinking is considered to be a key pedagogical goal in education. Education of informatics and critical thinking have a strong relationship since students cannot develop skills related to Informatics if they cannot think critically. Therefore, within the informatics textbooks the cultivation of critical thinking skills should be promoted. The present paper aims to determine to what extent the cultivation of critical thinking skills is promoted in the Informatics textbook of the first class of the Greek lyceum. This textbook contains thematic units referring to hardware-software and applications, programming environments-applications development and communication collaboration and security within Internet. The method that was used is the quantitative content analysis. The present research revealed that within the examined textbook cultivating critical thinking skills is promoted insufficiently, since in the whole text, the cultivation of critical thinking skills is promoted in a small percent of the text it covers. In the examined material, the critical thinking skills whose cultivation is promoted are the interpretation skill, the analysis skill, the evaluation skill, the inference skill and the explanation skill. The interpretation skill is represented by the categorization sub-skill and the clarifying meaning sub-skill. The analysis skill is represented by the examining ideas sub-skill. The evaluation skill is represented by the assessing claims sub-skill. The inference skill is represented by the querying evidence sub-skill, the conjecturing alternatives sub-skill and the drawing conclusions sub-skill. The explanation skill is represented by the stating results sub-skill and the presenting arguments sub-skill. Moreover, it was found that within the examined text, the cultivation of the self-regulation skill is not promoted. The only parts of the examined text in which the cultivation of critical thinking skills is promoted in the largest percentage of the text they cover are the teaching objectives and in the activities.

Bullying among school children is a complex problem that requires a multifaceted approach. De Bono's six thinking hats technique can help effectively approach the issue of bullying. The innovation of this scenario lies in the fact that it uses De Bono's technique to deal with bullying at school. In this way, students can gain a holistic knowledge and promote creative and critical thinking in addressing an issue by considering multiple points of view. The purpose of the paper is to present and highlight one more tool, a teaching scenario that uses De Bono's technique to address the issue of bullying at school. The scenario was implemented in 6th grade students the school year 2021-2022 to develop skills and examine if their attitudes about bullying can be changed. Finally, the students, as they wrote in their evaluation, changed their behavior, reflected, and discussed the problem of bullying and proposed solutions.

Design Thinking (DT) is not merely a well-known design methodology but also an entire mindset towards solving complex societal problems in an innovative way. Its popularity in diverse disciplines beyond design, is due to its relation with the development of key 21st-century skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Teaching the DT mindset has always required methods different from the traditional, one-way, mainly teacher-led approaches in which students play a more passive role in the learning process. Such creative methods include constructivist teaching practices, such as learning-by-doing and learning-by-making. Game modding, which is defined as the modification of existing games, is also seen as a constructivist teaching approach since in this way students learn by designing a game. The experience is argued to increase the engagement and interaction of players with the game, and combine the roles of player and designer. However, using game modding to teach the DT mindset remains poorly researched. This paper discusses the outcomes of a pilot study developed in the scope of the in-progress Erasmus+ KA2 project 'T-CREPE' (Textile Engineering for Co-Creation Paradigms in Education). This study investigates the influence of game modding on students' adoption of the DT mindset through the use of an online learning platform that enables a game modding experience. This platform includes games that students can play, modify, and/or design their own in the process of developing a project. Students (n = 240) and teachers (n = 9) from three higher education institutions in Belgium and Greece participated in this study. The quantitative and qualitative data collected has provided information on their experiences of game modding while cultivating a DT mindset. The findings of the study indicate that game modding enables students to practise critical questioning, constructionism and co-creation, which are core elements of the DT mindset.

Reading mathematical texts is closely related to the effort of the reader to understand its content; therefore, it is reasonable to consider such reading as a problem-solving activity. In this paper, the Principle of Mathematical Induction was given to secondary education students, and their effort to comprehend the text was examined in order to identify whether significant elements of problem solving are involved. The findings give evidence that while negotiating the content of the text, the students went through Polya's four phases of problem solving. Moreover, this approach of reading the Principle of Mathematical Induction in the sense of a problem that must be solved seems a promising idea for the conceptual understanding of the notion of mathematical induction.

Contribution: Prior studies on tangible versus graphical user interfaces have reported controversial findings concerning children's preferences. This paper shows that their preference profiles in the domain of introductory programming are associated with gender and age for both interfaces. Background: The relevant literature mainly consists of empirical research into the possible advantages and weaknesses of tangible user interfaces versus graphical user interfaces in the domain of programming for children. Research designs have considered aspects of usability, attractiveness and users' collaboration. Existing findings are not clear. Methodological issues, e.g., limitations of simple statistics, may have limited the clarify and usefulness of findings to date. The present study explores children's preferences profiles. Research Questions: Two research questions were posited: the first focused on the latent profiles of children's preferences for the two programming interfaces (tangible or graphical), and the second focused on the association of these profiles with gender and age. Methodology: Children ( N=148 ) aged from six to 13 years old participated in this paper. Eight variables related to the attractiveness, collaboration, and usability factors for the tangible and graphical programming interfaces were measured and analyzed by Latent Class Analysis, a model-based clustering method that can reveal distinct preference-profiles and associate them with individual differences. Findings: The patterns of responses are consistent across items for both interfaces. The graphical programming interface strongly trisects children's preferences profiles; the three latent profiles encountered were associated with gender and age.

The present paper reports on the abilities of young students to pose a problem and explores how these abilities relate to the solutions suggested as well as whether the age of the student influences these abilities. Specifically, twenty-seven 6-year-olds and thirty 9-year-olds from two state schools located in Volos, a small provincial town in Greece, were used as a sample. The inductive analysis of the data, collected in the form of drawings and interviews indicated that the majority of the students were able to pose the problem; albeit in an incomplete way. According to them, the problem of waste is created when people discard whatever is not useful to them. Few of them connected the waste issue to consumption or were aware of the possibility of reusing or recycling. Even fewer students suggested solutions other than just throwing waste into a bin. The results showed that those students, who knew about reusing and recycling at the posing phase, suggested them as ways of reducing waste. It may be assumed that focusing more on improving the way students pose the problem could affect their suggestions for addressing it. It was also noted that third-graders seemed better able to pose the problem than younger students.

The inmates' adult educator implements the principles of adult education in the enclosed prison environment and makes efforts to reintegrate them socially. In Greece, inmates' adult educators mainly work in Second Chance Schools (SCS) operating in prisons. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the inmates' adult educator at the Second Chance School of Chania Prison. The qualitative method was used in this research. According to the results of the survey, the inmates' adult educators of the SCS of Chania Prison believe they need to have knowledge of the principles of adult education as well as of the prison system. In addition, they perceive the skills to delimit their relationship with prisoners, empathic and problem-solving skills as decisive. Finally, the attitudes of accepting and respecting prisoners are fundamental for the inmates' adult educators of the SCS of Chania Prison.

During the last decade, coding has come to the foreground of educational trends as a strong mean for developing students' Computational Thinking (or CT). However, there is still limited research that looks at coding and Computational Thinking activities through the lens of constructionism. In this paper, we discuss how the knowledge we already have from other thinking paradigms and pedagogical theories, such as constructionism and mathematical thinking, can inform new integrated designs for the cultivation of Computational Thinking. In this context, we explore students' engagement with MaLT (Machine Lab Turtle-sphere) , an online environment of our design that integrates Logo textual programming with the affordances of dynamic manipulation, 3D graphics and camera navigation. We also present a study on how the integration of the above affordances can promote constructionist learning and lead to the development of CT skills along with the generation of meanings about programming concepts.

Escape room games are a popular recreative activity that recently started gaining popularity as both a means for conducting research studies and a teaching and learning environment. This paper follows a group of 16- to 17-year-old students in an escape room while they encounter logical challenges in order to escape from the room in a limited amount of time. Their ability to work effectively as a team and complete activities quickly is a key element to success. In this setting, the aim was to examine in what ways this innovative environment might help students benefit in terms of social metacognition. The findings gave evidence that during collaborative problem-solving in an escape room, cognitive demands are distributed among the players. This makes metacognition visible, facilitates shared management thus improving individual cognition, facilitates reciprocal scaffolding, and enhances motivation.

In this paper an educational design proposal is presented which combines two well established teaching approaches, that of Game-based Learning (GBL) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The context of the proposal was the design of an educational geography computer game, utilizing QR Codes and Google Earth for teaching English Language to Greek Primary School students. This integration provides a motivational and cognitive basis for language learning, since it represents a meaningful, contextualized activity and on the other hand, gives students the chance to expand their cognitive skills and use more sophisticated language. The proposed game immersed 11 to 12-year-old students in problem solving challenges regarding the use of geography in realistic contexts. While attempting to solve these problems, students were engaged in eight-week collaborative work, involving six levels of gameplay by following hints, provided by QR codes images. The findings of this case study suggest how foreign language learning can successfully take place within a geography game-based learning environment, and they underscore the efficacy of approaching GBL in terms of performance. Students' performance was evaluated through knowledge tests and various complex tasks throughout the game play, involving writing and reading skills. In general, students showed positive attitudes towards the game and the post-test results have significant differences compared to those of the pre-test, in terms of vocabulary acquisition and reading skills in the foreign language and geography knowledge. The results also showed that the collaboration required by this game, allowed the students to interact in a controlled environment, where they undertook roles and responsibilities. To this end, the findings will make an important contribution to the empirical evidence of GBL particularly with regards to its application in primary education.

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning difficulties affecting approximately 15 to 20 per cent of the world's population. A large amount of research is currently being conducted in exploring the potential benefits of using Information & Communication Technologies as a learning platform for individuals and especially children with such difficulties. We focused on developing an application, which could improve children's fundamental skills, such as reading comprehension, orthographic coding, short-term memory and mathematical problem solving through game playing. In search of stimulating and interactive learning experiences, we first designed and developed a mobile phone application for children with dyslexia. The main core of our research was to assess the usability of the technology and evaluate its effects. We have presented initial research results regarding EasyLexia, a mobile application for children with learning difficulties. In the meantime, tablets and touch screen portable devices were rising in popularity amongst students, leading us on to question whether bigger screens and more processing powered devices could enhance interactivity, usability and overall engagement. In this paper we improve upon our previous research, and present design choices and implementation details of a tablet based game for children with learning difficulties, whilst comparing our evaluation results to our previous research conclusions.

This paper presents results of a questionnaire focused on investigating students' confidence and behavioral intention in the area of programming, particularly that of structures, problem solving, and programming commands (Conditional--Loop). Responses from 116 1st year students regarding informatics were used. The results indicate that the engagement with programming logic yields a positive impact on students' confidence and acceptance. In addition, all the measured factors are related relatively strongly. Our findings demonstrate that students' prior direction (at Lyceum) has a significant impact on their Confidence for using Programming Commands (CPC) and Confidence for using Data Structures (CDS); however, prior direction does not have any impact on learners Problem Solving Confidence (PSC) and Behavioral Intention (BI) for programming. In the conclusion, several issues regarding the courses of programming are discussed.

The present paper examines the difficulties Greek senior high school students identify in learning Statistics and how these difficulties are related to the course's level of difficulty. Also it examines the difficulties students identify that teachers face while teaching Statistics, their suggestions for changes and how these difficulties and suggestions are related to the level of the students' satisfaction by the method of teaching. In the paper a case-study is presented, that was designed and realized at the Department of Statistics and Insurance Sciences of the University of Piraeus. In the study 163 students from Experimental and Private High Schools participated, all attending the 3rd grade of Greek senior high school. (Contains 2 tables and 10 figures.)

The reference contexts that accompany the "realistic" problems chosen for teaching mathematical concepts in the first school grades play a major educational role. However, choosing "realistic" problems in teaching is a complex process that must take into account various pedagogical, sociological and psychological parameters. This paper presents a selection of problems from the new mathematics textbook of the 2nd grade of Greek primary school which were solved and commented upon by 27 postgraduate students. The results of our research showed that the empirical reference contexts put forward in these problems create many difficulties in their "deciphering", which leads us to conclude that their pedagogical role is problematic.

Background: The conceptions that children develop about environmental issues are likely to form the basis of how they comprehend such issues, influence their behaviour towards the environment and, ultimately, determine the way they address these issues. Being aware of children's ways of thinking about the environment is, therefore, of paramount importance if educators are to provide effective and efficient teaching in this field of increasing global significance. Purpose: This paper presents an explorative study which sets out to identify the dominant conceptions held by a sample of 9-year-old students in relation to addressing, both collectively and individually, two environmental issues, namely forest destruction and waste. Sample: The sample comprised 30 9-year-old students (15 boys and 15 girls), from 2 state primary schools with diverse socio-economic student populations, in a provincial city in central Greece. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. The interviews were analysed qualitatively, using a thematic approach. Results: Findings suggested that children's conceptions about how to address environmental problems could be grouped into two broad conceptions: the first concerned proposing 'direct actions' for the short-term addressing of the problems, whereas the second related to a proactive approach for addressing the problem in the longer term, with an emphasis on sustainability. Furthermore, there seemed to be connections evident between the children's conceptions in terms of their personal contributions and the thoughts they held about collective actions. Conclusions: This study offers insights into children's approaches to addressing the problems of forest destruction and waste. It was evident that the children believed that they could address the problems by applying whatever methods they are aware of. We argue that this suggests that an action-oriented and problem-solving strategy towards education would be beneficial. A transformative approach is suggested as an effective technique, drawing on hands-on, experiential and project-based activities, so that children can be educated with the aim of becoming competent at making decisions themselves and taking action as active participants and change agents for sustainability.

This paper describes a limited longitudinal study of young children's early numeracy development within three testing cycles, at the mid-point and towards the end of their reception year (at five years-of-age) and again at the mid-point of Year 1 (at six years-of-age), located within the broader context of progress through to Key Stage 1 SAT results (at seven years). Assessment was carried out using the Utrecht Early Mathematical Competence Test (Van Luit et al., 1994). This comprised eight sub-topics, five items in each, including comparison, classification, correspondence, seriation, counting, calculation and real-life number problem solving. Broadly, one set of sub-tests related to understanding of relations in shape, size, quantity and order, whilst a second set of sub-tests related to basic arithmetic. Three hundred pupils were selected from twenty-one schools, large and small, from rural and urban areas, with high and low concentrations of children eligible for free school meals and/or with special educational needs, as well as representing a broad range of achievements levels based on standards assessment tasks. Whilst this paper focuses upon the performance of English pupils, reference is also made to the larger European sample which involved children from Flemish-speaking Belgium, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and the Netherlands. Results showed that children's total scores at around the mid-point of reception year were indeed predictive of later achievement at the end of KS1 though the combined scores over three testing cycles which extended to the mid-point of Year 1, were more so. Discriminant analysis confirmed that a combination of a counting sub-test (one seemed sufficient) and a sub-test focusing on understanding of relations in shape, size, order or quantity (a different one at each testing cycle), together with the general number knowledge sub-test was best predictive of final SAT levels. Comparison with the international data set suggested a different trajectory for English pupils, with more of a bias towards arithmetic sub-tests than their European counterparts who start school later. Moreover, the pattern of dependence of scores on age in which no advantage was found in including any national differences was especially interesting. These findings are discussed within the context of different school start ages and traditions of preparation for formal schooling. Perhaps what emerged most strongly is the need for young English pupils to maintain a broad and balanced early mathematics curriculum, which places appropriate emphasis on practical problem solving. (Contains 8 figures, 15 tables and 1 note.)

Presented is the development of school geometry in contemporary Greece since the era in which the secondary education system was established (1836). Identified and interpreted are the reasons for the endurance of Euclid's Elements as the basic component of school geometry in Greece. (KR)

Problem-based learning is the latest name for a teaching philosophy that is as old as Ancient Greece. Whether you call it Socratic Inquiry, case-based teaching, problem-based learning, interactive group learning, or "flipped" learning, the essential concept is to encourage the student to collaborate in applying their gained knowledge to solve a problem. As traditional lecture-based teaching has been challenged, the design of classrooms has been called into question. A flat or tiered room is not seen as an ideal setting for collaborative work. In our own College of Business, several traditional classrooms were converted to problem-based learning classrooms at considerable expense. This paper evaluates, using measures based on Michael G. Moore's theory of transactional distance, whether moving flipped classes into these high-tech classrooms improves the collaborative learning experience. Transactional distance can be defined as the barriers that exist to a student's engagement with their learning experience. These barriers arise due to the interaction between students and the teacher, other students, the subject matter content, and instructional technology being used. Our results suggest that, from a student engagement and outcome standpoint, the investment in costly high-tech classrooms is not warranted—a welcome result in times when university budgets are stretched to the limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomena of climate change transcend all national and regional boundaries. To address this complex challenge, wemust determine the areas of the country of interest, in this case, Greece, that have been most adversely affected by climate. Greece is surrounded by water, and a significant part of its GDP is derived fromthe marine andmaritime industries, including tourism. Since the start of the IntelComp project, a Preparatory Living Lab (PLL) has been planned and delivered, feeding into the development of the IntelComp platform and the Living Lab on Climate Change Adaptation. The study's results lead to the conclusion that one of themost important challenges in tackling climate change is the decarbonisation challenge, specifically the shift to renewable energy sources and the investments that must be made. Several EU and national policy frameworks, including the European Green Deal, the Climate Law, the National Long-term Strategy for 2050 (on the Climate and Energy), highlight the decarbonisation as one of themajor challenges in the climate change pledge. This will be the primary subject of the IntelComp climate change case study. PLLs also led to the identification of policy questions and useful data sources to aid the IntelComp project's launch. While previous research on co-production has primarily focused on involving citizens through public participation processes in order to gain their support, trust, and insights in structured decision-making processes, our approach opens a new channel for incorporating external knowledge into problem-solving processes. The IntelComp project will aid in policy development by providing pertinent tools co-developed with the final users that will provide insights and analysis in the field of STI (Science, Technology, Innovation) encompassing all of the Energy areas mentioned above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motorway's personnel tasks management and incidents monitoring, and response are critical processes that contribute to the motorway's orderly and smooth operation. Existing management practices utilize SCADA technologies that control motorway actuator systems as well as various means of personnel communications mobile technologies. Nevertheless, contemporary motorways lack a unified incident response solution that tracks resources, sends notification alerts when necessary, and automates incident resolution. This paper presents a new holistic and unified management and response system called Resources Management System (RMS). This system was originally implemented as a generic motorways resources management system for the EGNATIA ODOS motorway that uses it in Greece. The implemented RMS provides real-time resources tracking, personnel utilization algorithms, and data mining capabilities towards incident confrontation. It operates as an incidents' collection and resources central communication interface. It is also capable of incident response and completion time categorization; real-time tunnel exits sensory monitoring, staff mobilization, and tracking system. Furthermore, the RMS includes machine learning methodologies and smart agents (bots) for solving the problem of estimating and evaluating the response and completion time of incidents based on previous successful incidents' confrontations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note explores the influence of both CEO and top-management team (TMT) characteristics on the process of making strategic decisions (SDs). Empirical testing is based on a sample of 70 SDs in industrial enterprises operating in Greece, using a combination of interviews, questionnaires and archival data. The results suggest that (a) the characteristics of both the TMT and the CEO influenced the strategic decision-making process, but the former had more influence, (b) the TMT and CEO influenced different dimensions of the process, and (c) the broader context of SDs is more influential than either the CEO or the TMT. Among the most important factors was the TMT's ‘aggressiveness’ (commitment to beating the competition, altitude to innovation, willingness to take risks). The results lend support to the ‘upper echelons’ perspective, but suggest that in studying strategic decision-making processes both CEO and TMT characteristics should be considered, in conjunction with the broader context. Such an approach should provide a more reliable view of strategic processes and their evolving dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article an attempt is made to determine the degree of relevance of location policy to the locational criteria used by firms operating in the Greek food industry with the purpose of developing aids for rational decision making based on experts' options. Since the article attempts to develop some helpful devices for decision makers of general relevance and applicability, it appears appropriate to draw from their expertise in the operations of the industry so that both general relevance and applicability of the results can be attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]