C. Process
C. 1 Planning, preparation of the program
Although the Ministry of Education has the
programs’ supervision, each one of the
eighteen Pedagogical Departments of the Universities
has the responsibility for the programs’ organisation.
In the programs’ first form, the graduates of the Pedagogical Schools
were participating in each Pedagogical Department’ s curriculum from
the third year of studies and those who succeeded in final exams took the degree
of each Pedagogical Department.
After 1997, every Pedagogical Department put in practice special curricula
in evenings or on Saturdays or special classes during summer. Moreover, the
Departments have the obligation to create educational centres at province so
as to facilitate teachers to take part in classes, since the participation
in the lessons is obligatory and if someone surpasses the six absences in one
lesson, he/she will be traced out of the program.
Of course, not all of them attend all the course of studies. The number of
lessons that every teacher has to take up corresponds to a particular number
of semesters, which is the one: The 1st category participates in 28 lessons
which correspond to four semesters, and in this category belong the graduates
of Pedagogical Schools, the teachers who are not appointed and those who have
a pre-service up to 5 years. The 2nd category participates in 20 lessons which
correspond to two semesters, and in this category belong those teachers who
have a pre-service more than 5 years. The 3rd category participates in 10 lessons
which correspond to one semester, and in this category belong those who have
a university degree or title of periodical training or title of post-graduate
studies or a pre-service more than 20 years. After the studies’ integration,
every graduate is provided with the degree of each Pedagogical Department.
Obviously, in the preparation level, there doesn’ exist any forecast
about the trainees’ acquired level of knowledge, their cognitive and
training potentials, and their abilities to study. All this information would
be very important for the trainers in order to understand teachers’ profile
and their needs, and try to correspond to their expectations.
Morever, the program of “Academic and Professional upgrading of Primary
teachers” doesn’ t offer flexible forms of training such as the
distance (correspondance) form and the e-learning form of study, which would
be prooved very helpful to those who live far away from the educatinal centres.
C.2 Methods of teaching and learning
The methods of teaching and learning vary according
to the different lessons of the program. However,
the methods that are used more often are: Lecture,
discussions, work groups, case studies, training,
seminars with the use of optical methods (video,
slides), ideas’ and experiences’ exchange,
theories’ adaptation in practice, use of
photocopies, short workshops, cooperative learning,
projects e.t.c.
It is obvious that in the program’ s framework there are used traditional
methods of teaching and learning. As it was mentioned, there is no use of the
e-learning which would be a very useful form of learning for people with different
ages, experiences, options and needs.
We also observe that there isn’ t any reference to the great importance
of feedback concerning the courses, the trainers and the positive support for
the participants. It is true that all students, and mostly the adult students
have the need of cofirmation to whatever they do, in order to be reinforced
their self-confidence.
C.3 Development and improvement of the program
As already stated in previous text, the forms
in which the program of “Academic and Professional
upgrading of Primary teachers” is offered
at present went through some development with
the aim to adapt to contemporary demands and
to adults’ needs and requirements.
In our opinion, a future program’ s improvement would be the adoption
of more flexible forms of learning such as the use of distance (correspondance)
form, since there are Universities which have available the appropriate equipment.
In this attempt, a good cooperation with the Greek Open University would be
prooved very effective, since it would give authorities the possibilities to
use its course offerings and even its expertise in questions concerning virtualisation
and pedagogical organisation.
C.4 Participation
Primary teachers’ participation in the
program is very special. In mornings, teachers
work in schools where they offer their knowledge
to children and in evenings themselves have to
seat to desks, take part in obligatory lessons
and pass the exams in order to take the degree.
We can easily understand that this is not only extremely tiring for the teachers
but it also confuses them, since they are simultaneously both teachers and
students. We think that this framework isn’ t so operative and it doesn’ t
fit a lot to adults, who want to feel that they have the authority and noone
can take it away from them.
As a solution, we propose that Primary teachers should have the right to take
an educational permit as long as they participate in the program, so as to
play only one role: either teacher’ s or student’ s role.
