The current study explores the impact of visual arts education on early childhood, highlighting its role in enhancing creativity, imagination, and emotional expression in pre-school children. It explores the perspectives of pre-school teachers on the importance of visual arts in children's development and the challenges they face when integrating…

Outdoor play comprises a highly significant play category through which children learn, develop, express themselves, socially and physically interact with their surroundings. Research, however demonstrates outdoor play is not substantially utilized within Greek preschool environments. This study was conducted during the 2019 academic year, aiming…

Drawing on kindergarten teachers' and University departments' reactions to the Greek government's initiative to adopt an integrated Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system, the present study aimed to explore how various ECEC professional groups working in the two main preschool programs operating in Greece define different aspects…

This study explores the utility of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) as a population-based measure of school readiness in Crete, Greece, during times of economic austerity. It is unique in that no similar investigation examining school readiness for grade one has been conducted in this country. More specifically, it identifies kindergarten…

In this article, we present the evaluation of a kindergarten teachers' professional development programme, 'Upgrading the quality of the pre-school environment' conducted by the participating teacher--thee programme is aimed at the improvement of the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care. The evaluation, which followed a mixed-method…

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…

The scope of this study was to discriminate factors, which could improve students' social relationships in kindergarten classrooms. In this research, 147 volunteer children participated, 67 female students and 80 male students. Every student was between 4.5 and 5.5 years old and they were all attending urban public kindergarten located in central…

The purpose of this study examines the impact of an instructional strategy on kindergarten children's narrative skills. The strategy was based on Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) principles and was adapted for kindergarten children. The sample consisted of 85 children aged 5-6, attending six kindergarten classes in Crete, Greece. The…

Students with General Learning Difficulties present low levels of social competence. In order to increase them, students participate in school psychological support programmes. There are no research data available in Greece regarding social competence in students with General Learning Difficulties in the first grades of elementary school. The…

Objective: The current educational intervention investigates how the use of the educational robot as an assistive tool can aid young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder helping them strengthen relationships and improving their interaction with typically developing children. Method: For this purpose an interdisciplinary road safety program was…

The purpose of this study was to observe record and evaluate the psychomotor development and its relationship to children's gender and age on attending public and private kindergartens in Greece. The sample consisted of 898 children (487 boys' 54% and 411 girls 46%) aged 64 ± 9 months from 64 kindergarten schools. A set of 18 MOT tests Zimmer and…

Purpose: The present study examined the nature of the effects (direct or indirect) of vocabulary, phonological and morphological awareness on early reading skills in the consistent Greek orthography by testing a unifying model of early reading development in a sample of 141 first-grade children. Method: Vocabulary, phonological and morphological…

The present research approaches differentiated instruction in light of metacognition and collaborative practices. The aim is to examine the contribution of a Tier 2 intervention implemented by teachers through a program entitled The Strategic Planners of Writing to the writing performance of 3rd and 4th grade students with writing difficulties.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a structured, playful activity program on the development of social skills in preschool aged children (4-6 years) during break time in the schoolyard of kindergarten. The participants were 40 pupils (26 toddlers and 14 pre-toddlers, 26 boys and 14 girls) from one Greek public kindergarten.…

The study explores the representations of childhood in Greek language school textbooks for primary second graders within a broad chronological period, from 1934 to date. School textbooks are understood as social representations of social categories and social phenomena which Greek pupils are assumed to embed. Drawing from the "new sociology…