This study examines the geographical dimension of access to higher education in Greece by mapping spatial disparities in the distribution of vathmos prosvasis, the decisive score for being accepted in one of the country’s tertiary education departments. Influenced by the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities and the social sciences, this paper takes a geographical approach. Spatial autocorrelation indices (Moran’s I) show that examinees from mountainous settlements, insular areas, and inner city neighbourhoods are much less likely to achieve a score that would allow them to enter one of the country’s higher educational institutions. The authors use the ‘oval’ metaphor in order to describe these differences. A number of explanatory variables at school catchment area level reduce the variation in vathmos prosvasis, but no conclusions can be made with regards to casual relationships between school neighbourhood characteristics and individual scores. The alarmingly low scores in a specific geographical region, the so-called ‘Pomakohoria’, are discussed as an example of how access to higher education in Greece is being affected by location.
This article presents an approach to STEM education for secondary and high school students, proposed by currently ongoing STEM4youth project (SWAFT, H2020, www.stem4youth.eu). The approach is the result of the cooperation and joint research of 10 European organizations, having deep expertise in science education and science promotion. The ultimate project goal is to develop educational content and teaching scenarios which in effect will make science education and scientific career more attractive to young peoples. To meet this goal, the project places STEM education in a broader societal and economic context, claiming that education should primarily respond to the labor market demands and address concrete societal challenges indirectly associated to science. The project seeks to produce a comprehensive, multidisciplinary series of educational contents -courses presenting key STEM disciplines' topics to support young people in their formal and informal education (extra-curriculum activities, science festivals, university organized lectures and open, web-accessible self-study materials). The content is organized around 6 STEM disciplines: Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine and also includes a Citizen Science Toolkit for Teachers. For each discipline 7-9 challenges (1-2 hours lessons/lectures/demonstrations/hands-on activities) are being developed which were identified as the most important to boost the creativity, competitiveness and innovativeness. The challenges will be largely presented through practical applications and impacts on the everyday life and work. A range of formal and informal methodologies and tools are being employed to present the scientific challenges in an attractive way (learning by experiment, gaming, citizen science at schools). Also, it will show which specific skills and competence STEM education develops and how these skills address the current and future European labour market needs. In lieu of this, the project provides a helicopter view of STEM disciplines and job characteristics associated with these disciplines to help young people undertake informed decisions about their future (subjects of interest, fields of study and finally career paths to pursue). The article presents how the abovementioned general ideas could be practically implemented in STEM education, proposing how to harmonize educational content from different areas, how to structure the courses and finally how to provide practical guidelines for teachers to help them conduct multidisciplinary lessons in a responsive, interactive manner.
Offers new insight in the case of educational evaluation in Greece by presenting the history and the current state of school effectiveness research (SER). From an historical perspective, presents the beginnings and the two generations of SER. A number of essential studies are reviewed. From a comparative perspective, examines the current advances of SER in many other parts of the world. Using these approaches, a number of theoretical and statistical issues are clarified. Examines the policy implications of SER in France, England and Greece. Expresses a number of thoughts for the future of SER and its contribution to the issue of educational evaluation.
This study investigates the psychometric characteristics of Gordon’s Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA) in a region with strong non-Western music tradition. It also examines the possibility of measuring audiation with the modern psychometric theory. The AMMA test was administered to 513 students in the city of Ioannina and a number of villages in the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece. Nonlinear factor analysis based on tetrachoric correlation coefficients confirmed a tone and rhythm structure in AMMA according to the theory of Gordon. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the tone and rhythm factor scores were .70 and .61 correspondingly. The Kuder and Richardson’s (KR-20) reliability coefficient for the 30 items was .55. A Rasch measurement model has a good fit. The analysis of the Rasch residuals has showed that the dimensions of AMMA do not distort the estimation of Rasch parameters. Further analysis of the 30 AMMA items has shown that they can be ordered in 10 levels of difficulty. The authors present items’ difficulty and persons’ level of audiation on the same interval scale and discuss the usefulness of the music ability tests that are based on aural stimuli.
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