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The pedagogies of fostering possibility thinking (PT) have been investigated for over a decade in early year and primary settings. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that sought to identify the teachers' pedagogical practices that foster children's (aged 9-10) PT through alternative resources of learning such as museums in Cyprus. Eight primary teachers took part, and the findings were compared with the existing PT literature which offers an in-depth investigation of the pedagogical features nurturing PT (time, space, learner's agency, standing back and forward). The analysis also suggests a new pedagogy (narrative improvisation) that teachers started using after the museum visit. The study provides a starting point for further research on the aspirations of pedagogies fostering PT using alternative resources of learning such as museum spaces. This paper presents the key findings of the study through a figure and ends with suggestions for further research.

This paper examines the extent to which teacher factors of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness can explain variation in student achievement in mathematics. It also searches for the extent to which any of these factors matters more for academically resilient students than for all the other low-socioeconomic-status students. Participants were all teachers (N = 66) of 14 schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas who teach mathematics to students of Grades 4-6 (N = 904). Teacher factors were measured through a student questionnaire, whereas mathematics achievement at the beginning and the end of the school year was measured through written tests. Student background characteristics were measured through a student questionnaire. Information on parents' occupational status was also collected. Multilevel modelling analysis revealed that all teacher factors explain variation in mathematics achievement. Differential effects for all factors but modelling and assessment were identified. Implications of findings are discussed.

The main purpose of this paper is to offer important insights into both immigrant and native students' experiences on interculturalism as well as identifying their inputs regarding the ways in which intercultural school development could occur. Interviews were carried out with 48 children; 24 Cypriots and 24 immigrants from 4 primary schools in Cyprus. Based on their perspectives regarding the improvement of culturally diverse schools, three thematic categories emerged from the data analysis; the structural and school organisational level; the socio-personal level; and the didactic and curricular level. Arguably, on the basis of the data analysis, sub-factors underpinning these levels were found to have implications for educational policy and practice aiming at the promotion of cultural awareness, intercultural competence, inclusion and respect in schools.

In recent years, more and more systematic research has been conducted in science fields, focusing on identifying alternative ideas that the students have for essential concepts and principles of physics. This has resulted in the production of essential and valuable international bibliographic information in various science fields, including mechanics. In the present paper, we focus on physics, particularly in classical mechanics, including key concepts such as weight, energy, force, action/reaction, and work. A multiple-choice questionnaire was given to senior students of primary school, middle school, and Cyprus's high school. We analyzed the percentage of correct and incorrect responses of the three survey groups to determine whether the responses were related to the group's age or representative of statistical fluctuations. For most questions, there was a statistically significant correlation with age, as opposed to gender, which does not appear to play a role in students' correct answers. In particular, our results suggest that the alternative conceptions of students, reflecting misconceptions and preconceptions, reduce with age or equivalently with the education level. Nevertheless, there are also many questions for which such a correlation cannot be established. Our study can be used in science teaching, on the design of curricula, and teachers' professional development.

Purpose: The paper discusses the influence of instructional leadership on effective teacher teaching practices and learning outcomes. In particular, the paper examines one of the instructional leadership practices, namely teaching evaluation, and seeks to investigate the influence on the effective teacher practices and on the achievement of 6th grade primary school students studying mathematics in the Cyprus educational system. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative research approach was deemed appropriate and employed for the purpose of the research subject, and in particular for the type of questions studied. Data were collected from 81 principals, 139 6th grade teachers and 1,553 students in the Cyprus educational system. In addition, data analysis was performed using structural equation models (SEM). Findings: The instructional leadership approach assumes that principal evaluations influence high learning outcomes. Findings demonstrated that the principal evaluation has a positive and statistically significant impact on effective teaching practices and student achievement. Originality/value: It is important to acknowledge that in the Cyprus educational leadership field the correlation among the instructional leadership, the effective teaching practices of teachers and the students achievements were not examined through the above parameters. Furthermore, the survey provided important insights into the principals, teachers, pupils and, more generally, on Cyprus's educational policy.

There is e-learning training need among teachers; therefore in-service training should be delivered. The problem was, was it better to deliver this training as blended or as online? And does such training differ according to the teachers using Second Life or not using Second Life? The study group consisted of 74 primary school, high school and university English Language Teachers, who are enrolled in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, The Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, and whose ages differed between 21 and 61. 37 of them attended to the online course and 37 of them attended to the blended learning course. The number of teachers who have joined to the Second Life classes were 37 and the number of teachers who have not joined to the Second Life classes were 37. In the research study pre-test and post-test experimental design is used. As a result, a significant difference among the success of the English Language Teachers who have joined to second life, and who have not joined to second life is found. This is a very important result. Further researches are necessary to find out if Second Life can be used in other disciplines. If the proper delivery methods is used both blended and online education will be successful. [This paper was presented at the Cyprus International Conference on Educational Research (CY-ICER-2012) (North Cyprus, Feb 8-10, 2012.)]

This paper refers to whole school interventions aiming to promote student learning outcomes through improving the functioning of school factors. Evaluation studies of these interventions mainly measure their impact on student learning outcomes. This paper argues for the importance of studying the mechanisms of whole school interventions through testing the theoretical framework upon which each intervention is based. We stress the importance of using Multilevel Structural Equation Model (MSEM) for identifying indirect effects of whole school interventions on student learning. To illustrate the strengths of this approach, we present an experimental study investigating the impact of the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) on promoting student learning outcomes. The methods of this study and the use of mediation MSEM in a 2-2-1 design to test the main theoretical assumption of DASI are presented. The intervention was found to have both a direct (d = 0.21) and an indirect effect (d = 0.13) on student achievement in mathematics. Implications for designing and evaluating theory-driven school improvement approaches are drawn.

The objective of the current study was to determine whether it was sustainable to teach and learn in multi-graded classrooms. This paper reports on an investigation into experiences of key stakeholders regarding difficulties and the factors contributing to the difficulties faced throughout the process of teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms in North Cyprus schools. The aim of the study was to identify the difficulties contributing to the learning and teaching in multi-graded classrooms and determine on the factors contributing to the difficulties faced according to the experiences, beliefs and perspectives by the core participants. The study employed the qualitative approach while collecting data, using interviews and observation checklists. Semi-structured interviews with teachers (N=20) and administrators (N=10) as well as focus group interviews with students and their parents (N=100) were conducted to identify the difficulties as well as factors contributing to the identified difficulties faced throughout the multi-graded teaching and learning process. Student observations were also employed in the classroom atmosphere. Qualitative phenomenology design was used for data collection of the study. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and observation checklists, which were analyzed using content analysis. Results maintained that there are certain difficulties and certain factors contributing to such difficulties. Difficulties include management, effective teaching and learning strategies and assessment in the multi-graded classrooms. Factors contributing to such difficulties cover organization of the curriculum, management in the classroom and lack of support.

This paper complicates oracy by attending to moments of vibrancy and stillness in a public school classroom, where children were expected to follow particular rules that governed their bodily movement and language use. I argue that children's talk in classrooms cannot be separated from the making of meaning at the intersection of human bodies, materials and immaterial forces, including discourses of schooling and schooled literacy. To do so, I utilise teacher interviews and video-recorded observations from a second grade classroom in the Republic of Cyprus, and analyse those drawing on an understanding of talk as embodied: as occurring through bodies, as part of and in conjunction with bodily movement, regulated and regulating, and yet not fully determining what being a child-learner in a classroom means. I present findings from this analysis in three interrelated moves as I connect talk and silence to local classroom rules, to discourses of literacy and schooling that discipline the (talking) body, and to the contingency of embodied talk in a particular classroom event. ?his multilayered reading provides insights into the ways in which oracy is part of an assemblage that, among others, brings together and pulls apart teachers' and children's talk, institutional discourses, and always already vibrant bodies.

As educational interventions that integrate death issues in the school curriculum are rarely designed, implemented and evaluated, our action research (AR) project aimed at investigating the complexities of integrating the concepts of loss and grief in the primary school curriculum of Cyprus. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze convergences and divergences between AR and lesson study (LS), as they emerged in our project. We particularly focus on the ways that AR served to legitimate ethically and politically those aspects of the project that constituted the experimentation of lesson plans on loss and grief. The AR and LS elements of our project functioned differently and served different purposes, and we speculate that this is not irrelevant to the controversial aspects of the lesson plans' topic, namely loss and grief. The paper argues that it may be strategically important, for ethical and political reasons, to both demarcate and associate AR and LS, navigating between them, particularly if a controversial issue is involved.

The purpose of this study was to explore music teachers' perceptions of, and approaches to, creativity in Primary education. Even though teachers' perceptions on creativity have been investigated broadly and extensively, qualitative research on music teachers' beliefs nurturing the students' creativity in Primary education are less common. In the present paper, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 individuals in the Greek-Cypriot Primary Education. The results of this exploratory study indicated that activities should include the promotion of the students' self-action and autonomy, and the pedagogical initiatives that enable students to come up with original outputs in order to be creative. This understanding, in turn, provided the researchers with access to the teacher participants' perceptions of creativity: a multifaceted concept related to students' autonomy, initiative, and the application of imagination and unrestrained thinking to any musical activity. These findings offer some initial insights and are discussed with respect to their implications for policy and practice. Suggestions for future research are also made.

This research study focuses on how teachers experience, negotiate and resolve tensions through the collaboration with other teachers and members of staff and the factors which may influence, support or undermine their role as inclusive teachers. For the purposes of this study, we drew upon Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework to examine the interconnectedness of the factors that may influence teachers' collaborative activities. We used Cyprus as our case study to explore the collective activity of collaboration (or lack of) between teachers and other members of staff in the school system. Research data revealed that teachers are increasingly aware of the value the collaboration with other teachers as a means to achieve inclusion more successfully. However, a number of factors including professional factors and contextual factors such as increased workload, lack of additional personnel in classrooms, curriculum demands and home-school relationship were found to create tensions in the activity of collaboration and consequently to affect the implementation of inclusion in the school system.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and through what mechanisms vulnerable adults are empowered through a second-chance education programme. At the same time, the paper aims at unveiling the obstacles hindering learners' empowerment process and making suggestions for the improvement of the educational programme fostering further empowerment of the learners. To achieve the objectives set by the research, a hybrid methodological design was applied combining hermeneutic phenomenology and critical discourse analysis. Data collection was performed using three tools: semi-structured interviews, reflective journals and document analysis. The results led to the emergence of a multilevel empowerment scheme of vulnerable adults in the programme. The empowerment mechanisms that emerged were as follows: (a) empowerment through participation as a self-value, (b) empowerment through the reconstruction of past experiences, (c) empowerment through the strengthening of their social capital and (d) empowerment through literacy skills. At the same time, the study shed light on a number of factors that inhibit the process of learners' empowerment, which unveil structural and operational weaknesses of the programme as well as of the policies pursued by the State.

The contribution of Action Research (AR) to school improvement is well-documented. This study records the accounts of two primary school leaders, involved in AR projects that focused on the development of students' oral communication skills. Drawing data from diaries with fieldnotes and systematic reflections, the study presents leaders' experiences, as they translated feedback into modifications and redefinitions to bring about change. Despite difficulties encountered, the leaders acknowledged the value of collaborative school-based enquiry for teachers, students and themselves, mainly reflecting notions of catalytic and democratic validity. The paper highlights that AR as a tool for individual and school improvement, can enhance understandings of school performance and empower participants to focus on school outcomes in an educational context that does not implement accountability measures. AR can certainly help principals in Cyprus reconceptualise and rediscover their pedagogical role as instructional leaders to improve teaching and learning. Yet, to address outcome and process validity, the paper argues about the need for evaluative tools.

Purpose: In this paper, the authors focus on a professional development programme in Cyprus aiming to enhance teachers' intercultural understanding, awareness and competencies. This paper aims to focus on trainers' and teacher trainees' reflections upon a teacher professional development programme in the primary school in Cyprus with the largest number of Roma children. Design/methodology/approach: The training was provided by a small team of six trainers. Immediately after each training session, each trainer participated in an interview, while three of the trainers participated also in a focus-group interview at the end of the training. The trainers' data were complemented by semi-structured interviews with a number of trainees either before or after the training. All interviews were transcribed, while interview questions comprised the framework for the qualitative analysis. The findings are presented by means of content analysis which formed the basis for emerging themes. Findings: The authors claim that trainee teachers appeared culturally aware and sensitive, as well as knowledgeable about intercultural education; furthermore, they seemed to implement different teaching methodologies and curriculum interventions to support Roma children's inclusion in the local school community. At the same time, they seemed to adopt instrumental approaches towards the content and purpose of the programme, seeking explicit instructional guidelines, plans and heuristics to deal with Roma inclusion. Considering the mis-recognition of teachers' efforts by stakeholders outside the school and the expectations of the educational authorities -- voiced via their school inspectors -- teachers desperately asserted the need for tangible strategies to help them cope with difference in their classrooms. Research limitations/implications: The authors argue that such professional development programmes should aim at facing, deconstructing and bringing to the fore prejudices and discrimination against the Other/s by valuing teachers, first, as reflective individuals and, second, as professionals with their own cultural backgrounds and identities, on which any training programme, of the kind presented in this paper, could start from and build on. Practical implications: Even though there is no tailored magic recipe to make teachers' daily professional enterprise in multicultural settings easy, to help teachers master the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence, the authors suggest that training should be directly linked to classroom practice and acknowledge stress and helplessness that accompany work in multicultural school settings. Social implications: The inclusion strategy in many educational systems needs to become more comprehensive to cope with varying sources of social exclusion, faced by vulnerable groups of a different cultural background, such as Roma. Teacher training thus needs to meet the challenges of working in a diverse and multicultural environment in general and with Roma children in particular. In view of the multicultural character of local societies, a more critically oriented humanistic education is needed based on tolerance and understanding. Originality/value: The limited participation of Roma in the school system could be related to teachers' (mis)conceptions about the Roma culture and that the widely different ways in which Roma relate to schooling are often disregarded by the school.

This paper describes a health education program entitled "Young Consumer" project, financed by the European Union and implemented by the Cyprus Consumer Association between March and June 2004. The aim of the project was to promote a healthy lifestyle among a group of Cypriot primary school pupils (11-12 years old). Participants were asked to create video "advertisements" to promote healthy lifestyles. The advertisements challenged stereotypical perceptions of "healthy lifestyles" that involve avoidance of pleasurable experiences, and promoted aspects of healthy living specific to young people. Participants projected the benefits of health-related behaviors such as caring about oneself, relaxing, eating fruits, exercising, playing, being creative and cycling as being associated with youth, vitality and health. This paper focuses on the positive aspects of the "Young Consumer" project, in particular the importance of positive approaches to health, sensitive approaches to young people, valuing participants' experiences and promoting the acquisition of empowering skills.

The present paper takes the approach of critical hermeneutics in human rights education (HRE) that has been developed theoretically and tries to operationalize it in pedagogical practice. In particular, a group of Greek-Cypriot teachers were trained in a series of workshops on how critical hermeneutical approach (CHA) could be taught in the context of HRE. The paper explores teachers' difficulties with and perspectives of CHA during the training designed and offered by the authors. The findings show how, in addition to epistemological issues involved concerning the meaning and implications of the CHA, the particularities of the local context (ethnic conflict, pedagogic traditions, educational structures) influenced the uptake of this approach. The implications are discussed in relation to the need to identify the difficulties teachers have with specific pedagogical approaches of HRE as they become manifest contextually, and the need to design teacher training in which teachers have opportunities to reflect upon and engage with these difficulties through a critical interpretive lens.

In this paper, we discuss the theoretical foundation and implementation of two alternative instructional courses that aimed to support the development of elementary school students' early algebraic thinking. Both courses approached three basic algebra content strands: generalized arithmetic, functional thinking and modelling languages. The courses differed according to the characteristics of the tasks that were used. The first course involved 'pure mathematical guided investigations' emphasizing scaffolding steps in pure mathematics contexts. The second course focused on 'applied open explorations' underlining more open questions in applied everyday contexts. The courses were compared in respect to students' learning outcomes. The findings, yielded from the analysis of pre-test and post-test data, indicated that the second course had better learning outcomes compared to the first. [Translation from English by Silvia Montero.]

This paper presents the main findings of a study exploring primary teachers' beliefs and practices with educational technology, through a sociocultural lens. The research setting involved an exemplary case -- a model school in terms of technology integration, on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The study sample consisted of teachers serving at the model school and Educational Ministry officials, while data collection methods included a brief questionnaire-based survey, interviews and classroom observations. Engestrom's Activity Theory model was employed both as a theoretical framework and an analytical tool. Despite the favourable technology conditions in the setting, findings suggest a weak link between teacher use of technology and the lesson objectives, with several explicit and implicit tensions at the teacher, school and system levels, affecting technology integration. The Activity Theory proved valuable in interpreting the findings and considering educational technology in its broader context, as a systemic and socially situated initiative. The implications of this study, especially regarding the sociocultural issues behind the integration of technology into schooling, contribute further to our understanding of the requirements for successful implementation of the initiative at different but certainly interactive and interdependent levels.

This paper investigates the sustainability and the impact of offering the dynamic approach (DA) to schools for more than 1 year in improving student achievement in mathematics (quality) and reducing the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on achievement (equity). A sample of 56 schools in socially disadvantaged areas in three countries (i.e., Cyprus, Greece, and Ireland) and their Grade 4 and 5 students (n = 2,844) participated in this study. Two experimental groups used DA to develop school improvement strategies and action plans. The first experimental group, which employed DA for only 1 school year, was more effective than the control group in promoting student achievement in mathematics and reducing the impact of SES on achievement both at the end of the 1st and 2nd implementation year. Schools which made use of DA for 2 years were found to be the most effective at the end of the 2nd year.

This paper describes a qualitative study that explored the understandings of human rights, pedagogical perspectives and practices in human rights teaching of three Greek-Cypriot elementary teachers. The study revealed some significant challenges in human rights teaching that seemed to be common for all three participating teachers. First, all of the teachers experienced pedagogical difficulties in defining and talking about human rights. A second challenge was that these difficulties seemed to influence both their pedagogical perspectives about the teaching of human rights and their teaching practices. And the third challenge was that the difficulties that teachers faced in preparing their lessons were also reflected in their teaching practices in four ways: the dominance of a "declarational" approach; decontextualization; the trivialization of human rights; and the retreat to familiar discourses and activities. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for teachers, teacher educators, and theory in human rights education.

Computer science has been a discipline for some years, and its position in the school curriculum has been contested differently in several countries. This paper looks at its role in three countries to illustrate these differences. A reconsideration of computer science as a separate subject both in primary and secondary education is suggested. At EDUsummIT 2015 it was argued that the major rationales for including computer science as a subject in the K-12 curriculum are economic, social and cultural. The paper explores these three rationales and also a beneficence matrix to assist curriculum designers. It also argues computer science is rapidly becoming critical for generating new knowledge, and should be taught as a distinct subject or content area, especially in secondary schools. The paper concludes by looking at some of the key questions to be considered when implementing computer science in the school curriculum, and at ways its role might change in the future.

This paper investigates the short- and long-term effects of both the home learning environment (HLE) and the teacher factors of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness upon student mathematics achievement. Written tests were administered to Grade 1 students (N = 1,444) of 48 primary schools at the beginning of Year 1 and at the end of Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3. A parent questionnaire measured student background factors and the HLE, whereas external observations measured the teacher factors. One aspect of the HLE (i.e., home learning materials) was associated with student achievement, not only at the end of Year 1 but also at the end of Year 3. Almost all teacher factors were associated with student achievement at the end of Year 1 and at the end of Year 3. The long-term effect of teachers was stronger than their short-term effect. Implications for research, policy, and practice are drawn.

There are many examples of collaborative action research being used to promote school change. Reflecting on evidence gathered as a result of collaborative inquiry led by a teacher in a primary school in Cyprus over a 3-year period, this paper examines what is involved in using such an approach within a centralised education system. In so doing, it exposes the social and political challenges involved, whilst at the same time throwing light on possibilities for overcoming these problems in order to facilitate school-led change. In this context, frequent staff changes presented particular barriers, and recent increases in migration into the country were seen to add further challenges, whilst at the same time opening up new possibilities for stimulating innovations through collaborative action research.

This study describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a dramatized scenario as a tool for educating primary schoolchildren (n = 150) on bullying. One of this study's main aims was to assess whether the scenario was successful at educating children on the critical characteristics of bullying endorsed by the majority of the researchers. Research findings revealed that, after viewing the scenario, the three main criteria communicated by researchers as being fundamental to the construct and definition of bullying--repetition (3.3%), intent (2.6%), and power imbalance (8.6%)--were mentioned very little. After viewing the dramatized scenario, all students were able to provide viable solutions to bullying either in the form of talking or reporting to a teacher, or by intervening as a bystander. Furthermore, after the implementation of the scenario, children's spontaneous responses fell into two category themes: being different (45%) and need to establish trust with a teacher or adult in school (35%). Given the promising results of this pilot test, suggestions for further adaptation and implementation of the current, first of its kind, Greek-speaking dramatized scenario, are discussed. This paper also calls for further considerations of the ability of younger children to understand bullying in ways that are consistent with the operationalization within the literature.

This paper draws on ethnographic data from a project on peace education and reconciliation pedagogies in the conflict-affected context of Cyprus. Following a primary school teacher over the period of eight months in peace education workshops and in her classroom before and after the workshops, we trace critical moments that seem to have an impact on teacher's thoughts and emotions in relation to conflict and reconciliation. Analysing extracts of interaction both from the workshops as well as from her classroom, we show her struggle to cope with reconciliatory ideas and the dominant conflict ethos, pointing to possibilities for change but also resistances and limitations. Despite the detailed focus on one individual, we use data from the whole project to contextualize her practices and we use her case to highlight important elements to consider when designing reconciliation activities. Using the concept of "critical ambivalence," we highlight teachers' ambivalent emotions during the process (namely, both positive and negative ones) as a first step in deconstructing hegemonic nationalist discourses, and we argue for the value of creating spaces for these ambivalent emotions to be acknowledged and discussed through a critical lens.

The number of students with identified Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools has been rising in the last three decades, primarily due to policy changes promoting inclusive education. However, many of these students remain socially isolated despite expectations that inclusion may lead to enhanced outcomes, particularly social outcomes. This paper draws on a study conducted in three countries; Cyprus, Spain, and Switzerland. A critical case study design, grounded in social capital theory, was adopted to examine the concept of social participation from a social network perspective in six Grade 4 classrooms, two in each country. Data were collected through 109 network surveys. Network maps for each classroom were developed, and social network measures were calculated. The findings from each case/classroom were encouraging in terms of the social participation of students with SEND and have provided a layer for understanding social responsiveness and inclusion of each classroom. The social participation for many students with SEND was found to be comparable to peers without SEND.

The present study explores possible relations between students' epistemic perspective, learning strategies and text comprehension. In Study 1, 79 sixth graders completed paper-and-pencil instruments to measure their epistemic perspective and learning strategies. Students' epistemic perspective was assessed using a scenario-based instrument, the Livia Problem. Students were epistemically profiled as Absolutists, Multiplists and Evaluativists. Students' learning strategies were assessed through the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). In Study 2, 20 of the students who participated in Study 1 were individually interviewed to measure their learning strategies, where they were asked to read a text and think aloud. Results revealed that students who were profiled as Evaluativists showed greater self-efficacy, intrinsic value, use of cognitive strategies and self-regulation. In addition, students who were profiled as Evaluativists engaged in more effective learning strategies and exhibited better text comprehension compared to students who were profiled as Absolutists. In particular, students who exhibited an Evaluativist epistemic perspective engaged in the strategies of understanding vocabulary, summarising and underlying, while students who exhibited an Absolutist epistemic perspective engaged more in repeating information and quick reading. Our findings show that a mature epistemic perspective is associated with effective usage of learning strategies and text comprehension.

The current paper examines teaching practices in three first-grade primary classrooms (age range from five years and nine months old to six years and nine months old) in Greek Cypriot public schools, exploring whether the wider changes in critical literacy education declared on a policy level are influencing classroom literacy practices. Greek Cypriot public education has followed the language policies developed in Greece since the island gained independence in 1960. However, from 2010, there has been a full-scale educational reform in Cyprus at all levels of education, and for the first time, a critical literacy model has been implemented. Drawing data from research conducted into classroom practices and discourse, the current paper analyses literacy teaching in three Greek Cypriot classrooms, focusing on the materials used, the idea of textuality, the role of metalanguage and the notion of language legitimacy produced in the classroom. The overall aim is to document how the model of critical literacy is applied (or not) in these classrooms, and to explore the limitations and difficulties encountered, especially in the first grade of primary school where students need to move from emerging to developing literacy, i.e. they need to acquire the mechanisms of reading and writing. The methodology adopted follows the methods used in micro-ethnography, focusing in this case on participant observation of literacy classes and interviews with teachers in three classrooms.

Research in diverse mathematics classrooms suggests that pupils' learning is influenced by both linguistic and cultural factors. In recent years, the demographics of Cypriot (mathematics) classrooms have become very diverse. In 2003, the Ministry of Education and Culture introduced the Zones of Educational Priorities, a UNESCO strategy for positive discrimination, to support schools with high proportions of immigrant pupils. This paper examines how elementary teachers in such schools see their immigrant pupils as learners of mathematics. The findings confirm two main factors identified in the literature (language and culture), yet the Cypriot teachers in this study share some particular views on how these features impact mathematics learning. Some recommendations for policy-making and future research are discussed at the end of this paper.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are continuously evolving and when integrated appropriately these can facilitate foreign language learning classes. Connecting the curriculum to real world tasks in this way prepares "learners for the challenge of coping with the language they hear and read in the real world outside the classroom" (Nunan, 2004, p.50). This paper discusses the use of ICT and the way it can motivate young learners of the age of 9-12, during their EFL classes, increasing their linguistic repertoire and developing their language skills. It also discusses how important it is for a teacher to be innovative, creating great opportunities for learning and without forgetting that "professional development must focus not only on how to use a particular hardware or software, but also on how it is used in alignment with more effective pedagogy, content, and context" (Li and Ni, 2010, p.120). Using ICT with a combination of interesting activities, motivating videos and songs through the use of the internet and the World Wide Web students can practice the target language, and be encouraged to become active explorers of language, whilst simultaneously gaining fluency.

This paper discusses the effects of children's exposure to violence against their mothers. It particularly considers the sided-effects of this violence on the children's behaviour, self-image and school performance. The research indicates that (1) violence against women victimises not only the mothers but also their children, even if the children are not themselves the targets of violence; and that (2) the signs/effects of a child's exposure to violence are as varied as the children's personalities and may be externalised in the different contexts in which children become socialised, including school. The paper presents findings from a study of 80 9-11-year-old children attending primary schools all over Cyprus. Half of these children were identified as having been exposed to violence; and 40 children were also randomly selected as a control group. The results indicated that children's views on their self-image and school performance, as well as their reactions towards violence, differed from the views and behaviour of children not exposed to violence. These findings should interest everyone involved in children's development and education.

This paper presents the results of a European study investigating the extent to which the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) can help schools situated in socially disadvantaged areas to improve their effectiveness. At the beginning of the school year 2015-2016, a sample of 72 primary schools in four European countries (Cyprus, England, Greece and Ireland) was randomly allocated into the experimental and control groups. A questionnaire measuring the functioning of school factors related with the school learning environment, school policy for teaching and school evaluation was administered to all teachers of the school sample (n = 762). A battery of mathematics tests and a questionnaire measuring students' socioeconomic status (SES) were administered to all students of grades 4-6 of the school sample (n = 5560). The experimental group made use of DASI to develop improvement strategies and action plans. Feedback was provided to the control group regarding their students' achievement and the functioning of school factors in their school. ?n each country, DASI had an effect on promoting student learning outcomes. For the control group of each country, the total effect of SES on student achievement at the end of the intervention was bigger than the effect of SES at the beginning of the intervention. No increase in the effect of SES was identified in the schools of the experimental group. Implications of findings for establishing a theory-driven and evidence-based approach to improve the quality and the equity dimensions of school effectiveness are discussed and suggestions for future studies are provided.

While learning can happen anywhere and everywhere, most educational practices in K-12 are confined within the walls of a classroom and the school; such practices narrowly define learning and exclude the opportunities that an expanded and digitally mediated definition of learning can offer. Augmented reality (AR) technologies offer exciting new opportunities for supporting ubiquitous learning, by superimposing layers of digital information on the real world. The digital augmentation can provide enriched learning experiences, through situating the learning content in authentic contexts and fostering inquiry-based learning. Nonetheless, learning can often be sidestepped as the use of AR technologies becomes a mere fun activity, akin to a treasure hunt. Such challenges indicate the need to provide scaffolded AR environments to support deep learning. These ideas are reflected in the design of the "TraceReaders," a platform for enabling location-based mobile learning using augmented reality (AR) technologies. "TraceReaders" supports the authoring of inquiry-based AR apps, to engage students in evidence-driven reflective inquiry in situ. This paper first describes the theoretical commitments which guided the development of the "TraceReaders" platform, followed by a description of its design rationale. Two case studies of informal inquiry learning using "TraceReaders" are then presented: the first one reports on the use of the "Young Archaeologists" "TraceReaders" app to support primary school students' historical reasoning, while the second one reports on the "Mystery at the Lake" app to support high school students' environmental science inquiry. These cases offer the opportunity to discuss the affordances and challenges in using such a scaffolded tool to support location-based AR learning in situ. The discussion concludes with lessons learned from empirical studies about the design and effectiveness of tools like the "TraceReaders" platform and future steps.

This paper describes an unexpected collateral finding from an educational intervention with at-risk primary school pupils in which parents worked regularly with their children's teacher to leverage his adaptive teaching methods for their children. Efficient parent-teacher communication and effective collaboration are prerequisites, but not given; establishing them unsurprisingly required flexibility on the part of the teacher, flexibility which, perhaps unexpectedly, turned out to be sufficient. A year-long participatory action research was conducted with parents of six at-risk fifth grade primary school students in the Republic of Cyprus. The children come from a small underprivileged urban school; they were identified to be at-risk through the national Ministry of Education assessment. Initially, parents resisted the use of the special-purpose custom-designed online platform for collaboration with the teacher as part of the educational intervention. To overcome this, at the second phase of the study, we switched to the online tools already in personal use by the parents. Parents responded fully, working closely with the teacher, with positive findings for students' performance and changes to teacher-student, teacher-parent and parent-child relationships.

Several recent studies in mathematics education have argued that, for reforms to be implemented effectively, teachers need to have appropriate support through high-quality professional development programs. Most programs, however, typically prepared by policymakers, focus on how to prepare teachers to use the intended curriculum. In this paper, taking a level-oriented approach, I examine in-service primary teachers' perspectives on school mathematics at the macro-level of the state and policies; the meso-level of the school and the wider community, and the micro-level of the classroom. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 22 experienced teachers in Republic of Cyprus schools, I discuss the importance of examining teachers' perspectives on school mathematics before designing and implementing professional development programs that address curricula reforms.

This paper examines the experiences of minority students from two different cultural groups, immigrant children of Pontian background and indigenous minority children of Roma descent, in the Greek-Cypriot educational system. Through a joint re-examination of results from two different qualitative studies, this paper delineates similarities and differences of how life at school is experienced through the eyes of children who are not part of the mainstream, in an effort to gain insight into the nuances of being a minority child in the specific educational system. Comparisons across the two groups of children suggest that although both groups shared a minority status, they nonetheless experienced marginalisation across different dimensions that were linked to their dual multilayered position as both insiders and outsiders. Attention to such complexities enables us to gain deeper understandings of children's lives, as too often the category of "minority child" seems to be treated as a monolithic and homogeneous one. (Contains 5 notes.)