Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

The core aim of this paper is to present a case-study for the promotion of Authentic Learning, with ICT integration in the Preliminary Greek Education and the cultivation of twenty-first century skills to young pupils. Undergraduate students from the Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Education of the University of Patras, under the mentoring of their teacher, who acted as “critical friend”, co-designed and researched the implementation of learning scenarios for the deliberation of concepts such as “diversity”, “human rights” to Early Childhood Education. The problematic of this study based on the absence of the practical implementation of those topics in the every-day kindergarten practice. Graduates wanted to explore if authentic learning scenarios with the pedagogical utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER) could cultivate healthy dialogue, resolve differences and respect others personal values, beliefs and attitudes (Curriculum of Studies from Preliminary Education, 2014). Moreover, they wanted to investigate if through the current learning, teaching, and research process would advance their role to a meaningful one in order to meet the challenges that both with their students have to face in a globalized world. A Participatory Action Research took place in kindergartens, infused from critical constructivist and authentic learning theories. The initial research results argue that pupils’ interest enhanced from topics that were authentic; could understand better, clarify and analyse the explored concepts, only when they participated actively to the learning activities, solving problems, debating and empathetically acting and finally it is realized that OER technological environments enhanced students interest.

Presenters

Aikaterini Maria Karava

Eleni Stavropoulou

Ioanna Mpekiari

Stavroula Karagiannopoulou

Ariadni Kouzeli
Preschool Educator , BA Student in University of Patras , Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education , Mikro Karavi Kindergarten , Greece

Maria Fragkaki