Papers by Maria Papandreou
Early Years, 2019
Recent research has acknowledged young children’s potential to engage in data handling activities... more Recent research has acknowledged young children’s potential to engage in data handling activities and create their own representations. However, our knowledge on children’s graphical signs produced...
Early Child Development and Care
This article builds on data from an action research project concerning a play-based intervention ... more This article builds on data from an action research project concerning a play-based intervention on magnetic phenomena that took place in a kindergarten classroom in Patras-Greece. By analysing the teacher's diary and following step by step the way she addressed a science intervention with the main intention to build on children's ideas, interests, and questions, we aimed to develop knowledge of the teacher's role to science learning in early childhood education, when free and guided play activities are implemented and mutually interchanged. The results indicated four main roles, which are enacted in various contexts by the teacher, and four resources she drew upon for addressing the integration of science learning with play.
Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 2020
By taking a cultural-historical perspective, the present case study put participatory pedagogies ... more By taking a cultural-historical perspective, the present case study put participatory pedagogies into practice for early mathematical learning and sought to delve into children’s emerging mathematising and the teacher’s role who attentively follows children’s initiatives. Drawing on a series of selected critical incidents that evolved as the children of a kindergarten classroom engaged with the investigation of linear measuring tools, we analysed both children’s mathematising processes and teacher’s responsive and mediational acts aiming to promote young learners’ mathematical thinking. With respect to children, the analysis demonstrated how through a series of ongoing mathematising processes, they elaborated and gradually developed key measurement concepts. Regarding the teacher's role, it was found that children’s emerging mathematising was supported by five lines of action enacted by her: (a) documenting thoroughly children’s actions, (b) posing challenging or clarifying ques...
Educational Journal of the University of Patras UNESCO Chair, 2017
Visual arts are languages young children use to communicate their experience and knowledge, expre... more Visual arts are languages young children use to communicate their experience and knowledge, express thoughts and feelings and interpret the world that surrounds them. As a spontaneous and uncoded language, artmaking has many advantages over verbal language. Among others, it offers vital opportunities to young learners to effectively construct meaning and concepts, appropriate new knowledge and improve their communicative and linguistic abilities. Acknowledging that visual languages feature prominently in the computer age that young learners grow up, this article considers artmaking as something more than a recreational activity and discusses how it can be used as tool for learning and teaching in early childhood. Being informed by the socio-cultural approaches, the authors analyse cases from practice and argue how it can be integrated in different areas of the curriculum, while they suggest ways to make it integral part of the classroom culture.
Educational Journal of the University of Patras UNESCO Chair, 2019
This study investigated a) how teachers view children’s ideas in science, b) if and how they elic... more This study investigated a) how teachers view children’s ideas in science, b) if and how they elicit young learners' thinking about natural phenomena and concepts, and c) what is the meaning and the purpose of elicitation for the teachers. Α two-phase mixed-method was implemented with 15 kindergarten teachers including a) drafting a lesson plan for teaching a science concept, and b) in-depth interviews. The results indicated that although the participants value elicitation practices in early science for various and important reasons and state that they implement elicitation practices in their curriculum, they seem uncertain about how to incorporate the information they derive from elicitation in their science curriculum.
International Journal of Early Years Education, 2020
Children’s everyday mathematics has been well evidenced by a growing body of research and is wide... more Children’s everyday mathematics has been well evidenced by a growing body of research and is widely acknowledged as fundamental to meaningful learning in early childhood education. However, literat...
Early Child Development and Care, 2018
The present study investigates the features of teacher-children interaction during whole-class ac... more The present study investigates the features of teacher-children interaction during whole-class activities within an early childhood community, in which children's active participation is supported. The theoretical basis of the study is shaped by sociocultural approaches, which consider learning as a process of social co-construction of meanings, accomplished through children's participation in meaningful and authentic interactions where their agency is deliberately fostered by adults. By implementing a three-level framework of analysis, two wholeclass activities were analyzed. The research findings identified how the control of the activities was shared between the teacher and the children, how the children's engagement was accomplished and what features it had as well as how their bodily movements contributed to the realization of meaning, sharing of thinking and extension of interaction. New insights on whole-class interaction are provided, which broaden our knowledge in the field of participatory pedagogy, while implications for future research are highlighted.
Early Years, 2016
Over the past years, Greece has been undergoing a severe financial crisis. The main purpose of th... more Over the past years, Greece has been undergoing a severe financial crisis. The main purpose of this study was to examine how early childhood teachers perceive continuing professional development (CPD) under such societal turmoil. More specifically, this study examined the perceptions of 45 in-service kindergarten teachers attending the 'Didaskaleio' training institute. Results showed that although Greek early educators express a positive attitude towards CPD, there are certain contradictions in their views regarding the way they perceive CPD and their expectations regarding CPD activities. Results indirectly reflect the changing context, the systemic weaknesses and the antinomies of Greek early childhood education.
Review of Science Mathematics and Ict Education, 2011
ABSTRACT Young children's ideas about a number of science topics have been steadily studi... more ABSTRACT Young children's ideas about a number of science topics have been steadily studied in recent years and the respective research findings have considerably supported the development of early childhood science education so far. However, according to the sociocultural perspective on young children's ideas in science, children adopt a variety of theories, since they are based on their everyday cultural experiences, which makes classification quite difficult. It is therefore suggested that any teaching intervention should take seriously into account the ideas of the children it addresses. But such thing presupposes that the teacher's educational design involves 'eliciting processes' of his/her students' ideas. The present study aims to investigate methodological issues on the implementation in Kindergarten classes of such processes concerning natural phenomena, as an essential stage of designing the respective teaching interventions. Particular emphasis is put on the "educational context" of these processes, while at the same time the function of the different kinds of activities exploring the ideas of Kindergarten children about the Earth's shape and the day/night cycle is studied with a view to formulating concrete proposals on learning and teaching in early childhood science classes.
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ABSTRACT This article considers drawing as a meaning-making activity that takes place in certain ... more ABSTRACT This article considers drawing as a meaning-making activity that takes place in certain sociocultural contexts to find evidence for its communicative potentials as well as the relationship between thought and drawing in early childhood. The researcher challenges traditional views about young children’s drawing that focus on the result of the drawing activity, shifting to more contemporary views that consider it a sociocultural semiotic activity. To illuminate children’s meaning-making process through drawing as well as the ways that drawing activity mediates their thinking and communication efforts and helps them develop, the researcher explores the relative literature and analyzes, through the lenses of the sociocultural approach, certain kindergartners’ drawing activities derived from previous observations in family or educational contexts. Finally, the researcher presents the consequent implications for early childhood education and research in this area.
The aim of this research ',vas to study a teaching approach towards a particular mathematical... more The aim of this research ',vas to study a teaching approach towards a particular mathematical area concerning the concept of length. We have tried to point out in what rvay the commonest mathematical conventions, meaning the numeratiOn system and measurement tools, can help 5 to 6 years old children grasp the concept of length conservation. We organized two experimental groups. During teaching intervention the children of the first group became familiar rvith the use of an arbitrary measurement tool, which allorvs only qualitative estimations of length. In the second group the children were trained to use a different tool, which is similar to the conventional folding meter and provides quantitative measurement. The results showed that it is possible to faciiitate the understanding of the concept of length conservation by using measuring procedures that allow length quantification.
The present study aims to investigate preschoolers' semiotic activity during their attempt to... more The present study aims to investigate preschoolers' semiotic activity during their attempt to solve an arithmetic problem concerning the addition of seven quantities. The analysis of 117 preschoolers' drawings in combination with their verbal descriptions resulted in the creation of 16 "notation types" distributed in four main categories: letters or words, pictograms, arbitrary non-conventional symbols and numerals. The results support a teaching perspective focusing on the integration of drawing in preschoolers' mathematics education. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Young children find difficulty in structuring a proper internal representation of an arithmetic problem. However, it has been suggested that the meaning of the problem could be grasped through its visualization, which is said to facilitate the solving process (DeWindt-King & Goldin, 2003). One of the strategies towards the visualization of the problem the researchers are studying is the integration of drawin...
Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 2014
ABSTRACT This article considers drawing as a meaning-making activity that takes place in certain ... more ABSTRACT This article considers drawing as a meaning-making activity that takes place in certain sociocultural contexts to find evidence for its communicative potentials as well as the relationship between thought and drawing in early childhood. The researcher challenges traditional views about young children’s drawing that focus on the result of the drawing activity, shifting to more contemporary views that consider it a sociocultural semiotic activity. To illuminate children’s meaning-making process through drawing as well as the ways that drawing activity mediates their thinking and communication efforts and helps them develop, the researcher explores the relative literature and analyzes, through the lenses of the sociocultural approach, certain kindergartners’ drawing activities derived from previous observations in family or educational contexts. Finally, the researcher presents the consequent implications for early childhood education and research in this area.
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 2013
ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of empirical research on the construction of a precursor... more ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of empirical research on the construction of a precursor model of the phenomenon of thermal expansion and contraction of metals in preschool children’s thinking, which is compatible with the model used in science education. The research included 87 children aged 5-6. It was conducted at 4 stages, during which predictions and explanations for simple cases of thermal expansion and contraction were sought. The discussions with the children demonstrated that a considerable number of preschoolers are able to take advantage of their involvement in the specific teaching processes and construct a stable precursor model of the phenomenon.
Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 2020
By taking a cultural-historical perspective, the present case study put participatory pedagogies ... more By taking a cultural-historical perspective, the present case study put participatory pedagogies into practice for early mathematical learning and sought to delve into children's emerging mathematising and the teacher's role who attentively follows children's initiatives. Drawing on a series of selected critical incidents that evolved as the children of a kindergarten classroom engaged with the investigation of linear measuring tools, we analysed both children's mathematising processes and teacher's responsive and mediational acts aiming to promote young learners' mathematical thinking. With respect to children, the analysis demonstrated how through a series of ongoing mathematising processes, they elaborated and gradually developed key measurement concepts. Regarding the teacher's role, it was found that children's emerging mathematising was supported by five lines of action enacted by her: (a) documenting thoroughly children's actions, (b) posing challenging or clarifying questions, (c) introducing activities to the plenary as a response to children's actions, (d) motivating children to ask their classmates for help, and (e) creating connections between children's funds of knowledge and key mathematical ideas.
International Journal of Early Years Education, 2020
Children’s everyday mathematics has been well evidenced by a growing body of research and is wide... more Children’s everyday mathematics has been well evidenced by a growing body of research and is widely acknowledged as fundamental to meaningful learning in early childhood education. However, literature supports that drawing upon children’s mathematical resources for further learning requires that the range of these resources is valued and noticed at school. Considering that up to now little is known about the way children express their mathematical ideas during naturally occurring activities within classrooms, this study sought to enhance our understanding of this issue. Informed by previous research on the emergence of early mathematics during play and based on the funds of knowledge framework, we investigated the content, the processes and the origin of children’s mathematical knowledge in a kindergarten classroom, with the aim to understand through a sociocultural lens where and how this knowledge is situated and how this information is revealed during play activities. Evidence foregrounds the importance of examining all the different facets of children’s everyday mathematics for creating responsive curricula and confirms the critical role of play for investigating this type of cultural knowledge within schools.
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Papers by Maria Papandreou