Policy and Practice in Greek Early Years Science and Mathematics: Insights from Comparison with Policy and Practice in Europe

Author(s):

Dimitris Rossis(presenting / submitting)Fani Stylianidou

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 02 A, Creativity in the Learning Process

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

15:15-16:45

Room:

A-204

Chair:

Kirsti Klette

Contribution

Background

This paper presents research conducted as part of the 30-month EU-funded project ‘Creative Little Scientists’ (SIS-CP-2011-289081) which focuses on providing a better understanding, at the European level, of the potential available on the common ground that science and mathematics education in pre-school and early primary school can share with creativity. The focus of this paper is the comparison between Greece and the rest of the EU countries (Belgium, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania) participating in the project, in terms of findings arising from two sources: a policy review of early years science and mathematics education and creativity, and a questionnaire teacher survey aimed at identifying existing practices, highlighting instances of, or recording the absence of practices marrying science and mathematics learning, teaching and assessment with creativity.

Theoretical Framework

Science and mathematics education, along with creativity and innovation are equally recognised as important and their strengthening in and through education as a vital priority for Europe (EC, 2010). Interestingly, an inherent link seems to exist between creativity and science and mathematics education. Science intrinsically involves inquiry and invention, which are triggered by curiosity, intuition, imagination, all of them elements closely related to creativity; it is also widely accepted nowadays that effective science and mathematics education is based on inquiry, which can lead to wonderment, and is fuelled by curiosity. However, traditional science and mathematics education is missing the element of creativity. Despite universal recognition of the importance of inquiry based methods for science and mathematics education, they have not been implemented on a large scale in many European countries, resulting in less effective science learning.

The Creative Little Scientists aims to provide Europe with a clear picture of existing and possible practices, in the intersection of science and mathematics learning, and creativity in pre-school and the early years of primary education and transform the knowledge generated through this into a concrete contribution towards the training of preschool and primary school teachers so that they are empowered to exploit the potential of creativity-based approaches to early years science and mathematics.

Research Questions

To reflect the conceptual and research foci, and methodological framing developed in the project’s Conceptual Framework (Creative Little Scientists, 2012a), the research questions in Creative Little Scientists are designed with the following objectives:

- to capture curriculum focus and design;

- to evidence practice;

- to develop practice.

The resulting research questions are:

1. How are the teaching, learning and assessment of science and mathematics in early years in the partner countries conceptualised by teachers?

What role does creativity play in these?
How do teachers conceptualise learning objectives and outcomes?

2. What approaches are used for the teaching, learning and assessment of science and mathematics?

What role does creativity play in these?
What are the opportunities and challenges for skills/attitudes associated with creativity?

3. What are early years teachers’ knowledge, skills and confidence in the teaching, learning and assessment of science and mathematics? What constitute their relevant experiences in teacher education?

Method

Existing approaches, which marry science and mathematics learning, teaching and assessment with creativity, are mapped against the list of factors developed in the List of Mapping and Comparison Factors (Creative Little Scientists, 2012b). These factors provide the scope and parameters for comparisons and are closely following the approach developed in the project’s Conceptual Framework (Creative Little Scientists, 2012a) while also drawing on the framework of curriculum components proposed by van der Akker (2009) as the “vulnerable spider web”. Research, for both desk research on educational policy and curriculum and an online survey aimed at revealing classroom practice, was carried out in two phases. Initially, Creative Little Scientists partners carried out an analysis of their country’s data which resulted in 13 National Reports discussing the findings from the analysis adding important contextual information. Subsequently, all the data gathered, together with the information from the National Reports, were drawn upon to identify similarities and differences between policies and teaching practices respectively in the partner countries. This paper presentation focuses on the comparison of results between the two National Reports for Greece (of policy and practice) and the overall sample of the nine countries of the consortium.

Expected Outcomes

The comparison of findings between the results in Greece and the rest of the partner countries revealed a number of similarities. With regard to policy, the Greek curriculum is in line with other EU curricula in terms of rationale (emphasizing affective dimensions of learning), learning aims (emphasizing the development of knowledge and understanding of science ideas and to process skills associated with scientific inquiry) and the role of creativity (very limited in relation to the development of science ideas). Major differences in the practices reported by teachers are: less attention to aims promoting understandings about scientific inquiry but significantly more use of data collection activities with simple equipment, emphasizing a more experiential teaching approach. An open approach to the essential features of IBSE is reported as common practice by teachers in Greece compared to a guided approach chosen by the majority of teachers in Europe. Finally, the assessment priorities set by teachers in Greece does not seem to focus on either competences to carry out scientific inquiry, or knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas and processes. The complete list of similarities and differences, as well as implications for policy development and teacher training, will be discussed in the conference presentation.

References

Creative Little Scientists (2012a). Conceptual Framework. Project Deliverable D2.2. EU Project (FP7 Contract: SIS-CP-2011-289081). Available at http://www.creative-little-scientists.eu/sites/default/files/CLS_Conceptual_Framework_FINAL.pdf Creative Little Scientists (2012b). List of Mapping and Comparison Factors. Project Deliverable D3.1. EU Project (FP7 Contract: SIS-CP-2011-289081). Available at http://www.creative-little-scientists.eu/sites/default/files/D3.1_List_of_factors_FINAL_0.pdf European Commission (2010). Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Retrieved 25 January December 2012. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52010DC2020:en:NOT van den Akker, J. (2009). Curriculum design research. In: Plomp, T. and Nieveen, N. (Eds). An introduction to Educational Design Research. Enschede, The Netherlands: SLO.

Author Information

Dimitris Rossis (presenting / submitting)

Ellinogermaniki Agogi

Research and Development

Athens

Fani Stylianidou

Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece

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