University of Western Macedonia Greece Headline of Greece’s chapter: “Participation’’ as a collaborative learning process in first-and second grade: a time-consuming process counteracting the achievement of cognitive learning objectives? Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

The title of the Chapter and, more precisely its second part, expresses the view of the majority of the primary school teachers, participating in the stage of initial needs analysis, which stated that “Participation’’ as a collaborative learning process in first-and second grade is a time- consuming process counteracting the achievement of cognitive learning objectives. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

 This traditional view of participation was the main problem for us, which we tried to encounter in the Greek Signals Project.  More specifically, as we have explained in our signals-meeting in Budapest, a number of teachers are familiar with modern concepts, such as ''Participation", "Co­-decision", "Communication", "Cooperation", "Activity- Oriented Interaction“, and they are aware that these concepts constitute an educational process and a tool for socialization into the democratic system. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

A two-faced and contradictory procedure On the theoretical level, teachers agree with this position, but on the other side, in their teaching practice they fall back to old habits, because they believe that the modern conception of participation is “time consuming”, competing with “learning” from their traditional point of view. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

Encountering problems/difficulties In our attempt to solve this contradiction, we focused on group work with the purpose to develop children’s cooperative and interactive skills, and to create an enjoyable and playful environment resulting into immediate outcomes. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

Structure of the Chapter  Introduction  1 Initial needs analysis  1.1 Field investigation  1.2 The Greek Language Curriculum and the Concept of “Interaction”  1.3 First Phase of pilot implementation: Children’s interviews  1.4 Second phase: pilot implementation of game involving children’s active participation, interaction and co-decision  The game: Restructure the song  Assistant researchers’ Observations: “communicative/interactive strategies instrument”  Parents’ interviews  1.5 Pre - and primary school teacher’s views on children’s learning  2. Design and Implementation of the Project  2.1 Rational of the project design and description of the Thematic Units  2.2 Project Implementation  Stages of implementation  Parents’ involvement in the project  3. Project Evaluation: Estimating the effectiveness of the project  3.1 Parents’ views on their experience from the project  3.2 Children’s views  3.3 Teacher’s journals  3.4 Assistant researchers’ journals  4. Concluding remarks  References Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

Closing remarks 1/3 I would like to point that the data indicated the need for reflection on the current practices and improvement of the practices in relation to:  a) task-based learning,  b) providing children with opportunities for active participation, cooperation and co-decision,  c) developing skills and strategies of co-constructing knowledge  d) encouraging children's expression through verbal and nonverbal communication. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

Closing remarks 2/3  Based on the positive aspects of the interventions that were ‘traced’ from the project evaluation,  we suggest that such a project could be implemented as an alternative educational practice in some other primary schools in Greece.  Positive aspects resulted also from parental participation, since parents’ involvement in their children’s activities by interacting with them and co-deciding proved to be an important factor in children’s learning process.  In the proposed cooperative working context, children felt free to express themselves, and to interact with other peers on a common target. Mostly, the ‘weaker’ and introvert pupils felt relaxed to express their views without the fear of any ‘rejection’, since they realised that all opinions are useful when being involved in a process of co-deciding.  In such a game-based environment, children get to know ‘themselves’ and the ‘others’ in a better way. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

Closing remarks 3/3  Last but not least, teachers could experience the culture of ‘democratic dialogue’ and realise that ‘participation - cooperation - interaction’, as learning sub-processes, are not time consuming, compared to the traditional ones. On the contrary, they compose a creative process resulting into children’s development of communication, cognitive and social skills, and as a result achieving learning to do, learning to learn and learning to be together. Gothenburg Meeting, September, 2015

Dissemination and Sustainability Some units of the Greek SIGNALS syllabus have already been tested in the following pre-graduate courses in the Faculty of Education of the University of Western Macedonia. 1) Curricula of Early Childhood Education. Teaching Strategies (K. Vrinioti) 2) Strategies of Acquiring/learning a language and Communication strategies (E. Griva) 3) Social pedagogical approaches in the primary school (I. Thoidis) Moreover, the principles, the design and the results of the Greek project were presented and discussed at the following international and national conferences: * A paper with the title “Pre-and primary school teachers’ views on children’s learning: A critical appraisal of the Greek case” (K. Vrinioti & I. Thoidis) was presented at the 25th EECERA Conference, Barcelona, Spain (7-10 September 2015). *A paper with the title “Participation’ as a learning process: A project at the first grades of primary school” (K. Vrinioti & E. Griva) was presented at the 2nd International Conference on Reimagining Schooling, University of Macedonia- Thessaloniki (24-26 September 2015). *A symposium related to the implementation of the Greek project will be organized by K. Vrinioti with all members of the Greek research group at a seminar conducted by the University of Western Macedonia- Florina, on 4 th December, Gothenburg Meeting, September,