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Information and Communication Technologies in Early Childhood and Primary Education: (Master thesis)

Ταταζίδου, Ανατολή/ Tatazidou, Anatoli

Early childhood and primary education in Greece is tasked with teaching children up to 12 years old valuable information about both themselves and the world around them. Specifically, it would be beneficial for teachers to have satisfactory teaching competence regarding the realization of the teaching in team-collaborative ways and a syllabus which covers what is required for the development of the student into an environmentally educated and digitally well-trained citizen. However, this may not always be the case, but may depend on factors such as the age and years of experience of the teachers. That is to say, most of the time the education professionals are in a state of teaching burnout, making it difficult for them to keep up with ongoing changes in the world and human societies—a situation that directly affects students' development into well-educated or poorly educated citizens. It should be mentioned that in several cases it may not be possible for in-service teachers to be informed and trained about the recent developments due to the multiple obligations of teachers and the lack of available time. This issue requires in-depth study and analysis to identify solutions and strategies for effectively addressing and resolving it in the future. First, a purpose of this study is to explore the opinions, knowledge and actions of Greek teachers in early childhood and primary education about ICT in education, environmental education and the combination of (collaborative or non-collaborative) environmental education with ICT educational tools. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to identify relationships among variables such as age and years of experience and variables regarding their perspectives, knowledge, and actions related to collaborative or non-collaborative environmental education, with or without the use of digital educational tools. The research methodology used in the context of this dissertation was based on the analysis of data derived from responses given by teachers utilizing Descriptive Statistics methods. More specifically, the research tool was a questionnaire designed for this study. The population included early childhood and primary education teachers in Greece, with the sample selected using convenience sampling. The results were quantified and analyzed using the statistical software “IBM SPSS STATISTICS.” Through this analysis, measures of central tendency for certain data were calculated, and correlation coefficients between variables were identified to address the research questions regarding their interrelationships. Additionally, it is worth noting that the results did not contradict the logic presented in the theoretical background; rather, they confirmed it. In other words, older teachers and those with fewer years of experience expressed a desire to continue training in this area, and to integrate ICT into collaborative teaching in environmental education. Conversely, younger teachers and those with less experience reported that they already know how to incorporate ICT into their teaching. These individuals are predominantly general education teachers in kindergartens or primary schools. Another finding is that teachers who implement activities related to the themes of this study generally consider the quantity of the teaching materials available to them sufficient for their student population but are not very satisfied. This summary provides an overview of the study, which proceeds as follows. First, the theoretical part of the research is presented followed by the methodology. Then the results and the conclusions are analyzed. Finally, the bibliography used and the appendix with the research questionnaire are presented.