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Long-term energy supply constitutes a pressing global issue. As a renewable energy resource, bioenergy can play a significant role in energy sustainability. The present study aimed to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of bioenergy amongst 412 Greek preservice primary teachers utilising a specific tool, the IBPAMS. Results confirmed the factorial validity and reliability of the Greek version of the IBPAMS. It also demonstrated that the energy and bioenergy-related knowledge of preservice teachers is moderate and poor respectively, while critical perceptions are held over the sustainability of forest-based bioenergy production. Overall preservice teacher attitudes toward bioenergy are positive. Statistical analyses showed that gender influenced the responses of the motivational and critical aspects of the IBPAMS-GR. The paper's findings have important implications for teacher preparation programs.

The pedagogical and didactic guidance of teachers has been linked, in the relevant literature, to the school management's adoption of the model of pedagogical leadership as well as to the assurance of a series of factors that influence it. This study aims at investigating the pedagogical role of the principal in Greek primary schools. Data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire completed by 133 Greek primary school head teachers. Results show that head teachers consider that their pedagogical role has mainly to do with the pedagogical climate, psychosocial and pedagogical guidance of the school unit. Additionally, the research results show that head teachers carry out their pedagogical role cooperating and communicating mainly with the members of the educational community of the school. Another noteworthy finding of the present study is that the factors that support head teachers in their pedagogical leadership role, are hard to exist in hierarchical educational realities such as Greece. The originality of the paper draws attention to the school's socio-economic environment, which significantly influences school leadership. Conclusions on the implications of the study are made and directions for future research are suggested.

Official communications and media news in Greece about the COVID-19 pandemic very often involve a multitude of numerical concepts and mathematical relationships, which are presented in different forms and in various contexts. This paper reports selected findings of a survey among adults, which had two aims. First, to investigate their subjective assessments concerning the difficulties encountered in reading and understanding such numerical information, embedded in texts and presented by infographics and time-series graphs. And second, to investigate their assessments of the usefulness of such numerical information, presented in visual forms. A convenience sample of 310 adults responded to an online questionnaire. The main conclusion from the analysis of these data is that a considerable number of the participants, although relatively highly educated, assess themselves as having difficulties in reading and understanding numerical information concerning COVID-19. Namely, about 9% report difficulties with information included in textual forms, while regarding visual presentations the percentage ranges from 10% to 35%. Yet more than half of the adults surveyed assess the presentation of numerical information in visual forms as useful for comprehension. Furthermore, the distributions by gender, education, and age of participants' answers to our questionnaire generally show no substantial differences among them. These findings advise caution regarding communications or announcements that involve even simple numerical concepts and mathematical relationships concerning COVID-19 and health issues.

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.

This paper follows up on the impact of a distance learning teachers' professional development program on their self-efficacy beliefs in the long term. Specifically, it measures the personal self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancy beliefs of a group of 122 in-service elementary teachers before the start of the program, immediately after its completion, and two years later. The quantitative was used as the data collection method of the research. The results advocate that both the personal self-efficacy beliefs and the outcome expectancy beliefs of the research participants improved immediately after the program was completed and the former remained relatively improved two years after completion of the program, while the latter returned to the levels they had had before attending the program. Recommendations are made for future research.

Teaching music often focuses on developing musical concepts, through comparisons and discriminations. This paper contributes to the discussion on concept development in music through recognition of common elements in a situation and a shift from a local to a general level, considering theoretical approaches to mathematical generalisation. It sets to explore preschool children's understanding of tempo and its use in new musical situations. The research involved a musical intervention in six preschool classrooms. Critical incidences from focus group discussions and non-participant observation recorded children's understanding of tempo from their musical actions, drawings, responses and reflection to teacher questions. The findings highlight that children could go beyond the specific content of the activities and focus on the basic characteristics of tempo, integrating them into their song creations. A teaching approach oriented to generalisation through concept development can assist teachers to elaborate musical content and realise students' level of understanding.

This paper aimed at exploring the challenges of implementation of culturally responsive leadership in Greek schools. Personal interviews with 10 secondary school principals in the Attica region were used to collect qualitative data. The following main themes emerged: (1) The application of moral values and inclusiveness begins with school leadership agency; (2) Understanding the practical application of culturally responsive leadership contributes substantially to the effective inclusion of ALL students. Therefore, by exploring the perceptions of school leaders we can gauge the nature and philosophy of the school system. In conclusion, recognizing the importance of culturally responsive leadership and its practice in a school environment would significantly contribute to the harmony of the school system and community.

Translanguaging refers to the communicative practices that go between and beyond defined linguistic systems. In language learning, it can be applied by helping learners access their whole linguistic and semiotic repertoires, thus enhancing language acquisition. This paper draws on quantitative data provided by language teachers of both elementary and secondary education in Greece through an online survey, in order to study their attitudes and practices towards translanguaging in the classroom. A combination of convenience sampling and snowball sampling was applied. The findings indicate that the majority of participants found translanguaging beneficial. Moreover, participants incorporate translanguaging practices quite often, while they encourage students' translanguaging slightly less often, and there is a small positive correlation between attitudes and practices.

In an increasingly globalised and multilingual world, the use of different scripts in the same semiotic landscape is an increasingly frequent and widespread phenomenon. For this reason, it is vital to conduct research focusing on multiscriptality in order to better understand the linguistic and semiotic functions of the use of multiple scripts that have become more or less officialised by the political-administrative power. This study examines the use of Latin characters in Greece and Bulgaria, the only two European Union member societies that formally adopt different scripts. Using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach, we analyse the coexistence of the national and Latin alphabets in the graphic texts of commercial signs in two urban areas: the Ladadika district in Thessaloniki, Greece and the Kapana district in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The results show that the advancement of the Latin alphabet is not homogeneous; sometimes unconventionally represents the national language; is not completely preferred to the recessive national script, but creates with it new orthographic-communicative forms; and can take place regardless of the overwhelming prestige of Global English. This paper demonstrates the importance of studying multiscriptality and the Romanisation process in the context of contemporary multilingualism.

Although concepts such as research without borders have become more commonplace in recent decades, few studies have investigated the capabilities that global researchers require to cross both cultural and disciplinary borders. This paper explores global capabilities along with strategies and spaces that may facilitate academic researchers' acquisition and development of global research competence. The study's dataset comprises responses of 26 participants across 15 countries -- all of whom are members of a specific comparative education society -- who contributed their views via e-questionnaire. Findings indicate that research capacity building is a dynamic process and global competence calls for complex skills and conscious attitudes. Commitment to expand scientific curiosity beyond one's own culture and academic discipline appears to be a main criterion in achieving global competence. Results of this study are not meant to be prescriptive but rather exploratory and informative for a broad group of academic stakeholders.

Introduction: The grading process in secondary education is always challenging to navigate since the subjective dimension of the human parameter always seems to interfere dynamically in combination with the variety of the submitted assessment questions grounded on the grading teacher's style. The central questions asked are: a) what are the applied assessment styles among Greek Religious Education (RE) teachers? b) What are their main assessment criteria? Moreover, c) What kind of evaluation plans are used to benefit the students? The above assessment issue is affected by the culture and mentality of each teacher. Methods: The method uses a quantitative survey designed by Google Forms to research the grading and topic patterns used by RE teachers and colleagues of humanities during their class assessments, both oral and written. Results: RE teachers have particular inclinations concerning the students' assessment issues. They consider their discipline demanding and often prefer to apply written form assessments in class. Moreover, more methods emerged, which belong to the new school perception but are still placed statistically as auxiliary assessment weaponry. Microsoft Excel was also used for data visualization and quantitative analysis. Discussion: The assessment point of view might differ in each subject's nature and, indeed, be planned by the objectives of each teacher. However, RE teachers and affiliated colleagues (literature teachers - affiliated colleagues should prioritise adjusting knowledge to the social realm. Limitations: The present research paper aims to stimulate educational interest regarding RE evaluation subjectivity by converting some subjective elements into precise statistical questions. Therefore, the questions used were a few but accurate, while the magnitude of the participants needed to be bigger, hindering the accumulation of more statistical information. Conclusions: Written-test assessments are prioritized, though oral inquiries are vital to the RE teachers' methodology because of time scheduling issues explained throughout the text. The whole assessment scenery is grounded on the fact that RE discipline is considered demanding and essential. Some statistical inconsistencies undergird the necessity of applying knowledge in the social praxis to benefit Greek society. The latter lack is a drawback.

Considering the potentially important influence of teachers' beliefs on their practices, the purpose of the present study was to examine what, if anything, pre-service kindergarten teachers from Greece and Cyprus had in common in terms of self-reported beliefs and self-reported practices related to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's policy statement for developmentally appropriate practices. Pearson correlations and one-way analysis of variance were used to compare overall mean scores for beliefs measured by the Teachers Beliefs Scale to those of practices measured by the Instructional Activities Scale. Research analyses revealed both similarities and differences as far as Cypriots' and Greeks' beliefs and practices are concerned. Nationality has been found to be correlated with the mean score assigned in the total survey. Further, beliefs have been found to predict self-reported practices. (Contains 3 tables.)

The continuum of beliefs reported by Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers and how those beliefs relate to classroom practices are explored in this article. Considering the potentially important influence of teachers' beliefs on their practices, the level of early childhood teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAPs) and the relationship between their beliefs and practices are regarded as important topics of study in early childhood education. This study was designed in order to investigate Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers' self-reported beliefs and practices related to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's policy statement for DAP. Research results indicated that participants favour DAP both as far as their beliefs and the instructional activities they implement are concerned. Even though the analysis indicated correlations among DAP and developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) beliefs and practices, beliefs have not been found to predict practices. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper presents and discusses the results of a study which investigated the needs, attitudes and beliefs of foreign language teachers of refugees in Greece and other countries of Europe. The research which was conducted in two phases, with the one being the pilot phase, involved approximately 120 teachers who commented on the difficulties that they face in contexts with students from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Students' trauma experiences, lack of schooling experience, behavioral problems, lack of specially designed materials catering for the needs of refugees, and of course the language barrier, were among the most frequently claimed problems. The paper ends with some empirically derived suggestions on how teachers could deal with the challenges related to this new reality.

This work analyses students' failure in the 2019 Nationwide Chemistry Examination in Greece, which concerns secondary education graduates, competing for admission to higher education Greek institutions. The distinction of thinking skills into higher and lower order (HOTS and LOTS) is used as a theoretical tool for this analysis. The examination included several questions that contained HOTS elements that had been unusual in previous examinations. This led to a decrease in overall student performance but better discrimination between outstanding and good students. Based on two samples of examination papers, corresponding to very similar subsets of the student population, the 2018 and 2019 examinations are compared, and the individual 2019 questions are evaluated. It was found that section B of the 2019 examination paper (which included contexts unfamiliar to the students, and for which, a large effect size between 2018 and 2019 was calculated) may have caused the large drop. An important link is established between the 2019 low performance and the HOTS and LOTS features of the questions, and the role or non-role of algorithmic calculations is examined. In addition, the critical opinions of chemistry teachers are provided, with a consensus emerging in favour of connecting chemistry with everyday life.

?he CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach has been proposed as an effective approach for students' education in the 21st century. Although it was initially proposed for students of higher education, CLIL has become especially attractive for students even in pre-school education. This paper focuses on the importance of CLIL implementation in fostering intercultural competencies among students who are engaged in CLIL programs. More specifically, this paper covers a theoretical review on CLIL and its development, while special emphasis is placed on the position of CLIL in the priorities of the European Council within the context of promoting multilingualism in Europe. CLIL aligns itself with the European Language Policy of improving language learning in its member states and with the EU Commission's objective of EU citizens' competence in European languages other than learners' mother tongue. The paper ends with references to organizations that promote the implementation of CLIL across Europe, while special emphasis is placed upon CLIL in Greek education.

This paper reports a study of prospective teachers' views about Europe, and European and national identity, in Greece and Portugal. The paper analyses written responses to a closed multiple-choice questionnaire provided by 33 Greek and 35 Portuguese prospective teachers following courses in Ioannina and Braga universities in early 2018. First, students were asked to answer 15 closed questions related to their perceptions of national, European and other identities. More specifically they were asked to choose among different associations of Europe and different levels of how their country is integrated into Europe. Also, they were asked to choose their preferred 'identification with particular identities' (Villaverde Cabral and Machado Pais, 1998) and to articulate their notions of citizenship by commenting on different criteria for the naturalization of immigrants. Finally, they were asked to predict the future of the European Union by answering an open question. Data analysis focused on the 2018 data and on comparisons with existing data sets, collected in Greece and Portugal since 1994, relating to perceptions of national and European identity and to notions of citizenship. The authors expected to find change over time in data on attitudes in the two countries, reflecting the impacts of the recent economic crisis in both Portugal and Greece and the refugee crisis, particularly in Greece. Portuguese participants were found to manifest a more positive perspective on Portuguese-European integration than had been the case in earlier data sets, while at the same time wishing to preserve some specific aspects of national identity. The Greek students were found generally to be consistent with their pro-European viewpoints, but at the same time there seems to have been an increasing distrust of the European Union after the experience of the 2010-18 economic crisis -- indications of which were apparent in some earlier findings.

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.

This study focuses on the debate surrounding global policies and practices related to the sector of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), utilizing the Greek policy context as an example. Drawing on the critical education policy studies literature, this paper interrogates the complex concepts of quality and autonomy, which are core in the global agenda. We do this by exploring how the international and national austerity measures, imposed in many countries -- and especially in Greece, marked by a devastating economic crisis in the last decade -- have affected their re-interpretation and translation. Our empirical data suggest that municipal ECEC directors, interviewed in the context of our research, hold diverse views on quality, raising issues of inequality, limited participation and low attainment. The study generates reflections, suggesting that the idea of autonomy has been systematically associated with Greece's economic struggles and therefore understood and re-interpreted by the participants in a constrained way that limits their action. The way these notions are re-contextualized at the municipal level, and the consequences for ECEC provision, pose as key issues of this research.

The Muslim minority in Thrace is a heterogeneous group of people regarding their cultural and linguistic identities. It consists of Muslims of Turkish origin who speak Turkish as their mother tongue, of Pomaks, who speak Pomak, and of Roma, who speak Romani. Their educational-linguistic situation is fraught with long-lasting problems, which are attributed to the inherent characteristics of 'Minority Education', a term used to describe a specific group of primary and secondary schools, situated exclusively in the area of Thrace, that operates under a special regime, as stipulated in legal instruments of international law and bilateral agreements, and can be attended only by Muslim minority children. Extensive research over the years has shown that there are serious impediments in these students learning Greek as an L2, even after the implementation of the Project for Reform in the Education of Muslim Children (PEM) and the additional educational material that targeted this particular religious minority. The results show that most of these students do not achieve a language level of A2 in Greek and, thus, exhibit low school performance. Similar results have been recorded in research papers concerning learning English as a FL, which is a compulsory school subject, by Muslim minority students in both public and minority primary schools. These students also fail to achieve the foreign language attainment level set in the school curriculum. The present paper seeks to outline the unchartered causes of this situation, delve into the language situation of Muslim students and suggest possible and viable solutions.

The Special Focus in this issue of "Industry and Higher Education" comprises three papers that address practical approaches to the critical challenge of preparing students adequately for employment and career development in the 21st century workplace. The papers, refereed, extended and revised for publication in the journal originate from presentations at the Ninth International Conference on New Horizons in Industry, Business and Education held on Skiathos Island, Greece, in August 2015. In this introductory article, the author provides a brief overview of the conference and summarizes the three papers that follow.

This study aims to explore the current published research on Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs), outlining the types of papers, countries where studies were performed and institutions devoted to this field. Also, it intends to classify the reviewed literature following a general categorisation of MOOCs, and to identify the main trends and topics of interest for LMOOC researchers. Results show that there is still a lack of LMOOC-related articles in CALL (computer assisted language learning) journals, since most of the publications in the period reviewed (2012-18) are conference papers. The country in which most studies have been done so far is Spain and Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) is currently the most active institution in this area. Within the taxonomy established, the most popular categories of studies focused on LMOOC participants or providers and case studies. Systematic review of the published literature indicated that research trends in LMOOCs studies comprise: 1) conceptualisation of LMOOCs and their distinctive features; 2) attempts to find the most suitable model for language teaching and learning beyond the xMOOC/cMOOC dichotomy; 3) suitability of LMOOCs for languages for specific purposes (LSP) courses; 4) focus on the learners and their motivation and experience throughout the course; 5) reflection on the new role of the teacher; 6) instructional design and how it affects participants' learning and possible attrition; and 7) importance of social learning in LMOOCs. Nevertheless, LMOOCs is still an emerging field in need of further serious studies.

Purpose: This paper seeks to better understand the dynamics of farmers' innovating processes by focusing on their sources of advice at various stages of their innovation process, specifically within the weak and fragmented Greek Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS). Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a mixed-method approach, drawing data from interviews with 112 farmers engaged in three innovation cases in Greece. Findings: Some farmers, despite the lack of advisory services, are engaged in innovating processes. They thus seek advice from various sources through networks which vary between farmers and stages of the innovating process. However, networking is not always successful and the knowledge acquired is not always valid. Practical implications: The study points to the need for advisory and innovation support services and facilitated networks in the quest for successful innovating paths. Theoretical implications: The paper underlines the complexity of farmers' sources of knowledge. Thus, the paper highlights the importance of untangling the innovating processes' stages and farmers' information and advice networks that underpin decisionmaking in each of these stages. Originality/value: ?he paper points to the diversity of configurations of advice pertaining to complex farmers' innovating processes, especially under adverse circumstances in terms of provision of innovation support services.

Digital platforms have become essential tools for the operational transformation of organizations over the last few decades. Governments have realized their advantages and are making progress in incorporating them into their infrastructure, especially during the COVID-19 era. This paper examines digital government platforms (DGPs), their value, and their characteristics. Previous research has identified a variety of factors that affect e-government or DGPs in differentiated cases and regions. The lack of a general list of elements that influence DGSs led to the creation of a general framework of factors that may contribute to a successful launch and operation. These 16 factors were categorized into 3 segments, information technology, government, and user. Their relationship is based on coordination/support, interaction, and feedback. In order to initially evaluate the proposed framework, it was tested through the application on the Greek public sector platform Gov.gr, and initial findings were presented. A contemporary mapping of Greece's digital status and the Greek government's efforts for a modern digital state were presented. Gov.gr is Greece's official master platform that offers a significant number of governmental services to citizens and companies quickly, remotely, and efficiently. The utilization of the framework that is developed in this paper against Gov.gr offers valuable conclusions about DGP's operation and its focus on bureaucracy reduction, accuracy, and satisfactory service. The paper concludes with research limitations and the identification of future research pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the consistency of pictorial representations of the atomic structure drawn by students on the basis of particular quantum numbers' characteristics. Participants were 192 students of the 12th grade of secondary Greek schools. This study's instrument, a paper-and-pencil assessment tool, included four open-ended tasks. In each one of the four tasks, students were asked to draw representations of the atomic structure under two specific conditions concerning particular quantum numbers' values. Results indicated the existence of a consistency between pictorial representations, providing indications that this kind of representation could be used as a consistent tool in order to study students' understanding of the contribution of quantum number characteristics in the configuration of the atomic structure. Furthermore Latent Class Analysis revealed distinct student profiles indicating how this consistency is distributed across the sample and emerging student classes that have problems in conceptualizing the characteristics of the first and fourth quantum numbers. Implications for science education are discussed.

The digital trails that students leave behind on e-learning environments have attracted considerable attention in the past decade. Typically, some of these traces involve the production of different kinds of texts. While students routinely produce a bulk of texts in online learning settings, the potential of such linguistic features has not been systematically explored. This paper introduces a novel approach that involves using student-generated texts for predicting performance after viewing short video lectures. Forty-two undergraduates viewed six video lectures and were asked to write short summaries for each one. Five combinations of features that were extracted from these summaries were used to train eight machine learning classifiers. The findings indicated that the raw text feature set achieved higher average classification accuracy in two video lectures, while the combined feature set whose dimensionality had been reduced resulted in higher classification accuracy in two other video lectures. The findings also indicated that the Gradient Boost, AdaBoost and Random Forest classifiers achieved high average performance in half of the video lectures. The study findings suggest that student-produced texts are a very promising source of features for predicting student performance when learning from short video lectures.

The nature of science describes what science is, how it works, and its interactions with society under the perspectives of philosophy, history, sociology, and psychology of science. Understanding it is an essential aspect of scientific literacy. Given the critical role that school textbooks hold, considering what is taught and how it is taught in schools, we find the presence of the nature of science in school science textbooks to be significant. In this research paper, all Greek biology textbooks of lower secondary education are analysed to evaluate whether principal elements of the nature of science can be found in them. The whole array of educational resources available (textbooks, workbooks, lab guides, teachers' books) was analysed as well as the corresponding official biology curricula. Content analysis was the method of choice, and the 'meaning unit' was the unit of analysis. We found that most of the nature of science references in the material that students were taught in 2021/22 was implicit and not especially designed by the curriculum. Some nature of science aspects were more commonly found (e.g., evidence is vital in science) than others (e.g., science has limits). The most opportunities for the nature of science to be introduced were found in history of science vignettes, laboratory activities, and some optional inquiry activities. However, without a structured design from the curriculum, it is the teachers' responsibility to design and facilitate nature of science instruction (or not). We conclude that lacking explicit references, the nature of science falls into the hidden curriculum and becomes falsely depicted, enforcing a positivist image of science.

The COVID-19 pandemic, with the consecutive lockdowns, has led schools around the world to transition suddenly from face-to-face education to online teaching. The purpose of this paper was to investigate secondary school teachers' beliefs on online teaching presence and school support for online learning during the pandemic. The sample was 238 teachers in Greece who are interested in e-learning and received some preparation to teach online courses. An online questionnaire was administered and three factors were revealed: instruction and organization, facilitation and cognitive activation, and school support. Teachers' perceived online teaching presence was strong (over 63% expressed agreement), and the highest percentages of agreement were linked to clear instruction, communication of time frames and course topics, and facilitation and encouragement that could help students learn. On the other hand, perceived school support for online learning was weak (over 50% expressed disagreement and neutral views), and the highest percentages of disagreement regarded the existence of a professional development strategy and of clear objectives/vision towards online learning. Gender, years of teaching experience, and experience with online teaching had a small effect on teachers' beliefs. Implications for teacher professional development, educational policy, and the design of educational technology applications are discussed.

In this paper, we investigate the intentions of kindergarten teachers to use the content and to apply the teaching methods that they acquired in a one-day teacher training seminar. According to the theory of planned behavior, the answer to this research question is directly related to a series of social-psychological personal criteria assessments, such as an assessment of the personal gains or losses, the opinions of important third persons, the teacher's own assessment of the value of the students' learning, and the perceived behavioral control assessment. A total of 114 participants completed a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire that consisted of two sets of five questions each. The results show that the kindergarten teachers' intentions to use particular content and teaching methods are based on whether they have the skills to apply them successfully, and on their assessment of the ability of their students to acquire meaningful knowledge. The teacher's choice of teaching method is also associated with the assessment of the personal gains or losses, as well as with the opinions of important third persons. Furthermore, the study findings show that there are two distinct categories of kindergarten teachers: those whose teaching is based on the tradition of science education, and those whose teaching is based on the tradition of early childhood education. The teaching implications of the results are also discussed.

In this paper, we present parts of an online qualitative research project which lasted a whole semester about the understanding of real numbers by sixty first-year Greek mathematics undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on the distinction between rational and irrational numbers and their location on the number line using straightedge and compass. The results, came of questionnaires, focused interviews and tasks, disclosed some gaps regarding real numbers that the students had from school and revealed confusion between irrational numbers and their decimal approximation. The results also led us to group students' conceptions of rational and irrational numbers into five categories related to the number and pattern of decimal digits. Teaching practices and perspectives as well as the, negative, impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning mathematics are discussed.

This paper investigates the viewpoints and perspectives of 179 undergraduate students engaged in a co-creation project regarding their anticipated progress, exploring, simultaneously, the affecting factors. The students attended the physics course in the Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering at the University of West Attica, Greece. The investigation is implemented through a questionnaire that appraises the students' co-creation expectations in association with collected demographic data via twenty-two close-ended questions (Q1-Q22). Several statistical data sets are presented, including descriptive and correlation statistics and principal component and exploratory factor analyses. The majority of the replies are provided by male participants in their first year of study, with an average age of between 18 and 19. The correlation coefficient between the questions ranges from -0.04 to 0.73, with the maximum occurring between the questions Q19 and Q20. Factor analysis justified by KMO (0.862) and Bartlett's sphericity (1749.843, p= 0.000) tests indicates five principal components within the following factors determining the undergraduate co-creation activities: responsible behaviour, feedback, helping, tolerance, and personal interaction. The above findings may contribute to the implementation of students' co-creation as they are valuable tools for the design and pre-requisites for a successful implementation.

The survey research reported in this paper aimed to show how foreign language teachers' (N = 69) self-efficacy beliefs and concerns related to implementing inclusive instructional practices with learners with dyslexia, as well as their attitudes to inclusion in foreign language education, change as a result of the teachers' participation in an intensive face-to-face course on dyslexia and foreign language teaching. The pre-post comparisons identified a statistically significant improvement in self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes, with large and medium effect sizes, respectively, as well as a decrease in concerns, with a small effect size. Moreover, the perceived level of knowledge of dyslexia reported by course participants after the course increased significantly compared to pre-course knowledge, with a large effect size. The perceptions of knowledge were crucially related to pre-course self-efficacy beliefs and concerns, as well as to post-course self-efficacy beliefs. The impact of several background variables on self-efficacy beliefs, concerns and attitudes was investigated. We found no significant effects of general teaching experience, experience in teaching learners with dyslexia, teaching context (country), full-time employment and level of education on self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes both before and after the course. The initial effect of previous training on self-efficacy beliefs disappeared in the post-course questionnaire. No significant effects of previous training were observed for pre-course and post-course concerns and attitudes. The initial effect of level of education and experience in teaching a foreign language to learners with dyslexia on concerns disappeared in the post-course questionnaire. Teaching context (country) and full-time employment differentiated participants with regard to how concerned they were about implementing inclusive teaching before the course, and these differences persisted after the course. Age differentiated participants in the attitudes to inclusion they held before the course, but this difference disappeared after the course. Finally, teacher trainers differed significantly from other course participants regarding pre-course self-efficacy and post-course concerns, with a small to medium effect size.

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.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of primary school teachers of all specialties in the Dodecanese (Greece) regarding the implementation of differentiated instructional strategies to support students with learning difficulties in the classroom. The research was conducted through quantitative approach using an anonymous electronic questionnaire on a sample of 174 primary school teachers of all specialties in the Dodecanese, during the period from February 13, 2021 to April 28, 2021. As for «content differentiation», the strategy most frequently used by teachers is the selection of the most crucial assignments for underachieving students with learning difficulties. As for «process differentiation», the strategy most often used is to adjust the pace of instruction to each student's needs with learning difficulties. Regarding the «product differentiation», the strategy most used by teachers is to offer extra support to students with learning difficulties, who have difficulty finishing activities. In terms of «assessment differentiation», the strategy most frequently used is to give more time to students with learning difficulties to complete tasks or exams, while, in terms of «learning environment», the strategy most commonly used by teachers is to make a conscious effort to ensure that students engage consistently and fairly in class.

In the Greek educational system, students of the third grade of general and vocational high schools, who wish to enter higher education institutions with an economic orientation, must choose the scientific field "economics and computer sciences". In this field, one of the most important subjects examined is 'Principles of Economic Theory'. It was introduced in the panhellenic examinations in 2000 and is still in existence today. The textbook of the course has not undergone any changes and according to many economists it contains anachronistic information and knowledge. In this context, the Greek Ministry of Education decided to introduce a new course entitled "Principles of Economic Science" from the school year 2025-2026 and consequently to write an updated textbook. In this paper we evaluate the adequacy of the old textbook to determine, on the one hand, whether the change in the curriculum was necessary and, on the other hand, whether its replacement in secondary education was correct. Through descriptive statistics and inferential testing and using the prefecture of Rethymno, Crete, as a case study, we cross-check the attitudes of students and economics teachers towards the textbook, to draw our conclusions.

Surveillance technology is more and more used in educational environments, which results in mass privacy violations of kids and, thus, the processing of huge amount of children's data in the name of safety. Methodology used is doctrinal, since the focus of this research was given in the implementation of the legal doctrine of data protection law in the educational environments. More than that, the cases of Greece and France regarding the use of surveillance technologies in schools are carefully studied in this article. Privacy risks that both children and educators are exposed to are underlined. In these terms, this research paper focuses on the proper implementation of the European data protection framework and the role of Data Protection Authorities as control mechanisms, so that human rights risks from the perspective of privacy and data protection to be revealed, and the purposes of the use of such technologies to be evaluated. This study is limited in the legal examination of the European General Data Protection Regulation, and its implementation in the legal orders of Greece and France, and practice pertaining to the case studies of Greece and France respectively.

The present generation of young people who nowadays attend higher education curricula are accustomed to receiving information and knowledge through audiovisual material. Creating a digital story can assist students to learn more on the subject they study as well as to help them overcome obstacles that hinder the presentation of their gained knowledge. The aim of this paper was to examine the use of audiovisual tools in the educational procedure of sport journalism higher education courses. Thirty-eight students in the School of Journalism at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki were asked to present a team sport in a video form. Following the general instructions from the teachers they were able to use any kind of equipment and software they chose to create the audiovisual production. Upon the completion of the projects and based on an embedded mixed research design they were asked to answer a short questionnaire and afterwards to participate in two focus group discussions. The results revealed that the employment of technological tools to create, present, and furthermore express themselves was warmly accepted and the participants stated that it provided a vivid educational environment, which besides enhancing the process of teaching, contributed to the acquisition of skills and their right utilization.