The Montessori method offers an alternative approach to public and independent schooling. In the Greek educational system, the Montessori method is mainly applied in preschool and primary educational contexts. The main research objective was to investigate the early mathematical competence of students aged 4-7 years old attending a Montessori…

The aim of the current paper is to investigate the traces of socio-cognitive influences in kindergarten teachers' representations about the practices they tend to follow when they develop Natural Sciences activities in kindergarten. A quantitative approach was used, with the research tool being an electronic questionnaire that was completed online…

The official policy documents of the Greek preschool education adopt a functional perspective of writing (i.e., writing for real communicative purposes) which signals an attempt to align the national language policy with the communicative language policy of the European Union. In this article, the consistency of this alignment is examined by…

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…

The introduction of STEM education, and specifically the implementation of educational robotics (ER), has drawn researchers' attention and has shown that teachers play a crucial role in leading this innovation. The present study concerns in-service and pre-service early childhood teachers, focusing on their perceptions and attitudes about ER use…

Children construct representations of concepts and physical phenomena and these representations are critical to education. The natural phenomenon of clouds is perceivable and also observable by young children in everyday life. Moreover, it is a subject approached by the early childhood science education curriculums. However, in several studies it…

The teaching of Probability Theory constitutes a new trend in mathematics education internationally. The purpose of this research project was to explore the degree to which preschoolers understand key concepts of probabilistic thinking, such as sample space, the probability of an event and probability comparisons. At the same time, we evaluated an…

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to development of research tools for observation and analysis of educational practices used by teachers in preschool classrooms. More specifically, we approached the implemented curriculum of mathematics in Greek preschool education. We analysed the recorded data from a week of teaching practices in eight…

New developments in the kindergartens in Greece have necessitated the availability of assessment tools that cover a wide range of children's skills and competencies that are related to the promotion of children's learning and development. The present study focuses on children's approaches to learning and aims to provide evidence for the Greek form…

The aim of this study was to examine if specific skills that are developed during preschool years could predict the reading performance in the first and second grade of primary school. Two hundred and eighty-seven children participated in this longitudinal study. At the kindergarten level, phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatised naming,…

The transition from kindergarten to primary school constitutes a significant point in children's development, entailing definitive effects on their personality and the formation of their behaviour, but also on their school performance. Innovative Educational Programmes constitute a nodal point for the development of cooperation among the…

Discusses the views and attitudes of preschool and kindergarten teachers towards parental involvement and parent-teacher partnership during early childhood education in Greece. Identifies types of involvement needed in order to prepare for future policy-making on preschool education. (AS)

This study was designed to examine whether there is a relationship between phonological memory and reading ability in Greek-speaking children aged between 6 and 9 years. An additional aim of the study was to investigate whether training of phonological memory during preschool years enhances reading achievement during early school years. In…