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The Information and Communication Technologies exercise a great impact on the ways people work, communicate and interact, and contribute considerably to the development of learners' skills. However, the use of Information and Communication Technologies cannot lead to the development of high-order skills and of critical thinking, if not combined with the appropriate teaching methods. In the light of the above, the aim of the present research is to identify and record Primary School teachers' beliefs about the impact of Information and Communication Technologies on the enhancement of critical thinking. An analysis of the skills taught within the Greek educational context and considered to be necessary for the development of critical thinking, is also provided. The data elicitation tool is a questionnaire devised for the needs of the specific research and the sample is comprised by 118 Primary School teachers working on the Greek island of Lesvos.

This study presents, discusses and assesses the findings of a research into lifelong learning through Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) in the region of Northern Aegean, Greece. In the first part, the paper introduces its readers to the theoretical framework of lifelong education, whereas in the second part it makes a brief historical overview of it in Greece. The third and largest part of the study presents, discusses and assesses the findings related to the trainees' opinions on a variety of aspects of their lifelong vocational training programmes in Northern Aegean, Greece. (Contains 7 tables and 2 notes.)

Research in recent years in Europe and internationally has highlighted the growing need to review paternal role and the growing importance of fathers' continued involvement in the upbringing of their children through new parental care arrangements, such as the joint custody, so that the well-being of both the fathers themselves and their children is ensured. The purpose of this research is to investigate the joint custody and paternal role in divorce in Greece. During the research process, which started in January 2015 and is still ongoing to date, data were collected from 2,638 people, through a semi-structured questionnaire. According to the results of the research, it is a common request of both women and men to maintain the father’s quality participation in the lives of children after divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic policy affects directly the socio-economic performance, along with economic growth and competitiveness process. There is a huge literature regarding the tools of economic policy, namely public fiscal policy and monetary policy as the determinant factors for economic growth and competitiveness process. Today, a decade since the establishment of European Monetary Union and European Central Bank, the member states of Eurozone are facing a multi-faced deep economic crisis, with high public debt and public deficits for most of the Eurozone member states. This paper aims to analyze the economic policy and to present the effects for public debt and public deficit, in a benchmarking study for Eurozone member states. It also attempts to estimate and present the implications for socio-economic growth. Furthermore, it discusses the limits and the prospects regarding the convergence and cohesion of member states within the Eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of productive efficiency through Stochastic Frontiers Analysis (SFA) has been the subject of research in many empirical studies on natural resources management. One of the main questions is to investigate the relationship between inefficiency and a number of factors which are likely to be determinants on natural resources management, and measure the extent to which they contribute to the presence of productive efficiency, characterizing the process of technological change. Following these both theoretical and empirical approaches, this paper focuses on reviewing the stochastic frontier analysis literature regarding estimating inefficiency in natural resources management, as well as explaining producer heterogeneity along with the relationships with productive efficiency level. This paper also provides an overview of the specific European Union policies that are implemented at European level, incorporating productive efficiency attainment, and also highlighting, where possible, the connections between these policies and productive efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New forms of urbanization and peri-urbanization in the twenty-first century are characterized by a greater degree of intra-urban polycentricity, with the emergence of more than one urban nuclei that are functionally, or even morphologically, integrated into the areas of the "urban archipelagos". The rise of urban mobility, under all its forms, is the most important factor in the emergence of these new urban forms and the two-way connection between the two evolutions has a determinant role in the modern urbanization process. The constant increase in the average speed of commute remains the primary factor that leads to an increased range of commuting, which continually pushes the limits of urban areas, favoring the integration of new cores. But at the same time, a whole set of economic, social and cultural/lifestyle factors contribute to the constant rise of residential mobility, which in turn determines the transition of the urban areas to a more polycentric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely referenced that performance at firm or industry level is measured either by productivity or efficiency. Although the importance of efficient use of productive resources has long been recognized, neoclassical economics assume that producers in an economy always operate efficiently. In reality, however, producers are not always efficient. Two otherwise identical firms never produce the same output, and costs and profit are not the same. This difference in output, cost, either profit can be explained in terms of efficiency and some unforeseen exogenous shocks and may be defined as relative productivity over time and / or space. This paper aims to review the main topics related to productive efficiency through the major alternative theoretical methods, so as to provide a background for future study and model implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The picture of population developments in the peri-urban areas of the 6 largest Greek cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) during the period 1991-2011, reveals that peri-urbanization has developed in a rapid pace, as a major spatial and demographic phenomenon in the country. The particular dynamics in the peri-urban zone of Thessaloniki and of a number of other large urban centers in the country, is confirming a clear recent trend towards the emergence of stronger regional poles, to the standards of other European countries. However, the official statistical measurement of this, very important, process is absent, as there is no defined spatial framework for its monitoring Thus, it would be very useful for ELSTAT (the Greek Statistical Agency) to adopt an official definition of the peri-urban zones, based upon commuting criteria, in order to make possible the production of official, pertinent and reliable data on the peri-urban areas and the evolution of their population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is an attempt in investigating the attributions of teachers about cognitive, learning and psychological characteristics of "good" and "bad" students. A written questionnaire consisting of 35 items, which described potential student behaviour, was filled by 377 Primary, Secondary and University teachers from the North Aegean region. From the factor analysis we can observe five factors characterised "good" students: 1) Parent involvement and behaviour (11 items- 16,5% of the variance), 2)Interpersonal adjustment (9 items-10,3% of the variance), 3) Intrapersonal adjustment (6 items-7,8% of the variance), 4) Independence (6 items-5,8% of the variance), 5) Classroom behaviour (3 items-4,6% of the variance). Furthermore we can observe five factors characterised "bad" students: 1) Parent involvement and school achievement (11 items- 17,3% of the variance), 2)Learning behaviour (6 items-8,7% of the variance), 3) Negative behaviour (6 items-6,2% of the variance), 4) Team working (8 items-5,4% of the variance) and 5) Behaviour towards teacher (3 items-4,1% of the variance). Significant differences in teachers' perceptions were found with the respect to teachers' gender, age and years of service as well as regarding several questionnaire dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present research is to study whether social networks facilitate the integration of future employees in the production area and if there is a statistically significant relationship between the above. Moreover the study focuses on the extent to which social networks affect the type of future employment, geographical and professional mobility, as well as job satisfaction. The analysis of the research also deals with demographic variants such as gender, age, educational level and place of residence. The final sample came up to 803 employed and unemployed inhabitants in the North Aegean Region. The sampling fraction was 0,013. Chi-square analysis was performed, except in cases where it was judged inappropriate, where Cramer's V statistic was used. It was found that the majority of population, which was based directly or indirectly on the assistance of social networks, was mostly employed in full-time posts. Additionally, it was found that positive attitude towards professional-geographical mobility and job satisfaction was not statistically different between the subjects of the sample, which used social networks and those which did not use social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to record the beliefs/views of educators of all levels, on the social dimensions of school failure. The facts of this research are part of a wider research concerning student's social adequacy having used a questionnaire and the viability of the educational system. The sample used for this research was 377 educators of all levels (80.4% of the sample) from towns, cities and rural areas of Greece and of 74 university students (19.6% of the sample). The results show that both educators and students differentiate between sociological and psychological factors when it comes to teaching. However, we noticed that the views of current or future educators were stereotypical and that could cause problems during teaching. Finally, students and younger teachers attribute school failure more to lack of knowledge on their part and to parents' excessive demands and less to the relationship between educator and the parents' low socio-economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An educator's professor has been underestimated by Greek society (low salaries, hard working conditions, lack of baching materials, work load etc). The educator is the person who transmits tradition, knowledge and ideals of a society to the younger generation. Nowadays, however, access to cultural capital, information and knowledge has become part of the social hierarchy and has to do with variables, such as social evolution and professional security. The educator is part of this socialization process young people go through and has a heavier burden to bear, since he/she works under the most stressful circumstances (that is having to face parents' expectations, achieve educational aims, deal with children with special needs or learning difficulties, changes in the educational system and new information), which may lead to a burn-out. Factors such as job satisfaction, anxiety and exhaustion influence teacher's teaching performance, as well as his or her dedication to education and school environment. In this study, an attempt has been made to develop a school adaptation scale and eventually to administer it to school executives, psychologists and educators, in order to measure school adaptation draw conclusions on this matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]