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This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

This conceptual paper aims to annotate the existing practices and actions of entrepreneurial education in Cyprus and Greece educational organizations taking into account the centralized school contexts. At the same time, it presents the literature background regarding the new principal's role in the 21st century in order to provide adequate school practices and actions in recent years. Specifically, it seeks to report the entrepreneurship theory and aspects concerning current practical applications in educational organizations. Consequently, the study indicates that according to the entrepreneurial education via the educational systems has the opportunity to adapt relevant programs for leading the schools in the effectiveness and improvement.

Although concepts such as research without borders have become more commonplace in recent decades, few studies have investigated the capabilities that global researchers require to cross both cultural and disciplinary borders. This paper explores global capabilities along with strategies and spaces that may facilitate academic researchers' acquisition and development of global research competence. The study's dataset comprises responses of 26 participants across 15 countries -- all of whom are members of a specific comparative education society -- who contributed their views via e-questionnaire. Findings indicate that research capacity building is a dynamic process and global competence calls for complex skills and conscious attitudes. Commitment to expand scientific curiosity beyond one's own culture and academic discipline appears to be a main criterion in achieving global competence. Results of this study are not meant to be prescriptive but rather exploratory and informative for a broad group of academic stakeholders.

The paper investigates the potential of using international large-scale assessment studies for conducting follow-up studies testing models of educational effectiveness. The impact of teacher factors coming from the "dynamic model of educational effectiveness" and the "dialogic education theory" on student literacy achievement is examined. Modern Greek teachers from secondary schools that participated in PISA 2018 (Accessed on https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/pisa2018technicalreport/) in Cyprus were recruited. Two Grade 11 classes per teacher were selected, giving 392 students in total. Observation data from Greek lessons and student literacy achievement data were collected. Two multilevel regression analyses were conducted: one with the whole student sample and one with only students from whom PISA prior achievement measure was identified. When prior achievement (i.e., PISA measure) was considered, additional and larger effects of factors on student final achievement were detected. Both analyses reveal that when factors from both frameworks were considered, larger variance in student achievement was explained.

Considering the potentially important influence of teachers' beliefs on their practices, the purpose of the present study was to examine what, if anything, pre-service kindergarten teachers from Greece and Cyprus had in common in terms of self-reported beliefs and self-reported practices related to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's policy statement for developmentally appropriate practices. Pearson correlations and one-way analysis of variance were used to compare overall mean scores for beliefs measured by the Teachers Beliefs Scale to those of practices measured by the Instructional Activities Scale. Research analyses revealed both similarities and differences as far as Cypriots' and Greeks' beliefs and practices are concerned. Nationality has been found to be correlated with the mean score assigned in the total survey. Further, beliefs have been found to predict self-reported practices. (Contains 3 tables.)

The purpose of this article is to provide information and data that will contribute to the enhancement of teaching methodologies for online learning and teaching at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education). More specifically, it attempts to shed light on media trends and prospects as educational activities and techniques, as well as on the utmost importance of the use of television content as audiovisual educational content. This venture focuses on the cases of Cyprus and Greece following literature materials and reviews, research results, and findings of previous numerous studies and research papers from and through the Internet that were considered as background. The aforementioned were applied in a pilot case study with adult educators as adult learners (18 years and older), providing literature data and historical elements as a source of further study. The findings from the pilot case study revealed that the television content can also shape (adult) learners' perceptions on how they understand and learn in an online environment in regard to the generational cohort they belong. Furthermore, the results disclosed that an online educational process utilizing audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (audiovisual media communications) may support technology-enhanced learning through non-verbal communication in the new streamlined digital era in which we live. An important conclusion of this article is that the (inter)national genealogical characteristics and habits, the inherent and special characteristics, and the socio-cultural identity of learners, as well as the various (inter)national social-phenomena (e.g., media socio-phenomenon, Internet phenomenon, revival phenomenon, etc.) of the past and present, should always be taken into account by education administrators and educators, in order to maintain a quality and sustainable future education.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected education at all levels in various ways. This paper provides a review of the literature on the challenges of online learning for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Method: In total, 17 studies from nine countries were analysed. The challenges of online learning for children with SEND reported by teachers and parents and the strategies applied to overcome the challenges were identified. Results: The challenges of online learning were the need of parental support, routine change, inequities of resources and access to technology, lack of accommodations, and social isolation. There was a considerable lack of interventions aimed at promoting the educational outcomes of children with SEND. Conclusions: The findings emphasise the importance of parent-teacher collaboration and communication. Suggestions for strategies to address challenges as well as for further research are also discussed.

This paper refers to whole school interventions aiming to promote student learning outcomes through improving the functioning of school factors. Evaluation studies of these interventions mainly measure their impact on student learning outcomes. This paper argues for the importance of studying the mechanisms of whole school interventions through testing the theoretical framework upon which each intervention is based. We stress the importance of using Multilevel Structural Equation Model (MSEM) for identifying indirect effects of whole school interventions on student learning. To illustrate the strengths of this approach, we present an experimental study investigating the impact of the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) on promoting student learning outcomes. The methods of this study and the use of mediation MSEM in a 2-2-1 design to test the main theoretical assumption of DASI are presented. The intervention was found to have both a direct (d = 0.21) and an indirect effect (d = 0.13) on student achievement in mathematics. Implications for designing and evaluating theory-driven school improvement approaches are drawn.

Analysis, the first phase of the typical instructional design process, is often downplayed. This paper focuses on the analysis concerning a series of e-courses for collaborative adult education in semi-formal settings by reporting and generalizing results from the REVIT project. REVIT, an EU-funded research project, offered custom e-courses to learners in several remote European areas and received a 'best practice' distinction in social inclusion. These e-courses were designed and developed for the purpose of providing training in aspects of the learners' professional domains related to the utilization of information and communication technologies. The main challenge was to prove that it is possible and economically feasible to provide meaningful training opportunities via distance education, by utilizing existing infrastructure ("revitalizing schools") and by making use of modern digital technology affordances coupled with suitable distance learning techniques and Web 2.0 tools. ADDIE, the generic instructional systems design model, enhanced with a rapid prototyping phase, was put forth in order to allow stakeholders to interact with a prototypical e-course, which served as an introductory lesson and as a reference point, since its evaluation informed the design choices of all subsequent e-courses. The learning needs approach adopted in REVIT combined learner analysis, context analysis, and needs analysis into a coherent analysis framework in which several methods (observation, estimation, document analysis, survey, and dialogue) were exploited. Putting emphasis on the analysis phase and decoupling the design from the delivery of the e-courses facilitated adaptation and localization. Adaptation and localization issues concerning the adoption of the REVIT distance learning framework, taking into account the socio-cultural and pedagogical context, are discussed. A central result reported is that the analysis phase was crucial for the success of the whole endeavour and that carrying it out properly is not straightforward or easy. The analysis framework presented in this paper could be useful in other similar e-learning situations whose "educational-identity" also involves distance and adult learning in a semi-formal setting.

The aim of this paper is to problematize the concept of foreign language (FL) teacher self-reported preparedness to respond to the special educational needs of FL learners with dyslexia by employing appropriate inclusive teaching practices. The paper shortly characterises dyslexia and then elaborates on the components of preparedness, namely, teacher knowledge on dyslexia and self-efficacy in implementing inclusive instructional practices with dyslexic learners as well as attitude to inclusion. The paper discusses the influence of a number of demographic variables on FL teachers' beliefs relating to their preparedness to include dyslexic learners and suggests implications for teacher training and further research on FL teacher education on dyslexia, special educational needs (SEN) and inclusive instructional practices.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a preliminary review of the existing literature about cashless society and the impact of COVID-19 on cash in Greece and Cyprus. A 'war on cash' will soon take place, as cash is thought of as a curse, and paper money is thought of as being unsanitary due to the coronavirus outbreak. Coins and paper currencies are considered a risk for public health, although transmission probability is low, compared with other more commonly touched objects. Data about the use of cash are being analysed. The ratio of cash to GDP in Greece and Cyprus from 2010 to 2020 increased rather than decreased and is above other countries. Cash is a convenient method of payment for low-value payments. Ratio is lower in Cyprus than in Greece and both countries have a high cash to GDP ratio in comparison with other digitalised countries, such as Sweden, while the number of confirmed cases and deaths from the coronavirus for Greece and Cyprus until the end of May 2021 were lower than expected. The population in Greece and Sweden is about the same (10.38 million people in Sweden and 10.42 million people in Greece). In the future, technological developments about payments will have an impact on cash usage all over the world. The coronavirus pandemic will increase the need to support cash and, at the same time, call for digital currencies from a central bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore music teachers' perceptions of, and approaches to, creativity in Primary education. Even though teachers' perceptions on creativity have been investigated broadly and extensively, qualitative research on music teachers' beliefs nurturing the students' creativity in Primary education are less common. In the present paper, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 individuals in the Greek-Cypriot Primary Education. The results of this exploratory study indicated that activities should include the promotion of the students' self-action and autonomy, and the pedagogical initiatives that enable students to come up with original outputs in order to be creative. This understanding, in turn, provided the researchers with access to the teacher participants' perceptions of creativity: a multifaceted concept related to students' autonomy, initiative, and the application of imagination and unrestrained thinking to any musical activity. These findings offer some initial insights and are discussed with respect to their implications for policy and practice. Suggestions for future research are also made.

This paper reports on an exploratory qualitative investigation of the discourses of plurilingual children's parents, with a view to developing an understanding of their family language policy. Drawing loosely on Spolsky [2004. "Language Policy." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], family language policy was conceptualised as having two components: (a) linguistic ideology, i.e. beliefs and attitudes towards language, linguistic development and plurilingualism, and (b) language transmission and management practices. A data corpus (242,178 words) was generated by drawing data from two online parent communities, focusing on families where Modern Greek was one of the family languages. Thematic analysis was used to explore the parents' stated attitudes, beliefs and practices about language, family and education as they related to plurilingualism and linguistic development. We documented strong positive views about fostering plurilingualism, as well as a range of concerns about balancing different aspects of the children's developing linguistic repertoire. We also noted that established language development and management practices (e.g. 'OPOL', 'Minority Language at Home') were supplemented with more flexible ones, suggesting adjustment to emerging multilingual norms. The findings suggest that there is scope for developing conceptual models of family language policy that are more responsive to emerging patterns of language contact and plurilingualism.

This paper explores linguistic landscapes and the enactment of public visibility and presence of non-majority linguistic groups in EU member states. Non-majority linguistic groups gain power, visibility and presence through the introduction of bilingual or multilingual signposts on roads, streets, squares, and public buildings in towns and cities where a given linguistic group represents a significant population share. The article offers a comparative analysis of language policies of EU member states regarding enactment of official bilingual or multilingual signs in public space. Twenty EU member states have signed the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages," while 17 members have ratified it. In addition, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, an integral party of the Lisbon Treaty, stipulates that language diversity is one of the fundamental values respected by the EU. Hence, this comparative research assesses various practices employed by member states in relation to the proclaimed values of multilingualism. Consequently, the paper depicts and compares different language policies that produce linguistic landscapes in EU member states. Finally, it tries to determine whether there is a convergence towards a common EU policy on bilingual and multilingual signs in public space.

In this paper is describing an initiative in cultural, outdoor science education that took place in the west Crete-Greece (Chania & Rethymnon counties) in 2015, and organized in collaboration with teachers and social bodies, to connect Science, Education and Local Communities for a better quality of everyday life. The initiative concentrated in organizing the European Educational Conference "Mediterranean Sea Connects Us: Progress in Education with Local Communities", which hosted as a training program that can be applied elsewhere, with different target groups, promoting the aims of participatory acquisition of knowledge by sharing them in company, with experiential activities in moments of joy, happiness and wisdom. Educators-officials of high level and much experienced in the three levels of Education from Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Romania, with representatives from local bodies, were invited to deposit experience, aspects, ideas and expectations on future educational collaboration in the area of Balkans, East Mediterranean and widely. As coexisting in the same geographical area, with long and important common past, as collaborators in educational projects from the past, intended to be partners in important and innovative future jointed actions in cultural STEM Education, for the progress of Mediterranean local educational communities.

This paper investigates the sustainability and the impact of offering the dynamic approach (DA) to schools for more than 1 year in improving student achievement in mathematics (quality) and reducing the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on achievement (equity). A sample of 56 schools in socially disadvantaged areas in three countries (i.e., Cyprus, Greece, and Ireland) and their Grade 4 and 5 students (n = 2,844) participated in this study. Two experimental groups used DA to develop school improvement strategies and action plans. The first experimental group, which employed DA for only 1 school year, was more effective than the control group in promoting student achievement in mathematics and reducing the impact of SES on achievement both at the end of the 1st and 2nd implementation year. Schools which made use of DA for 2 years were found to be the most effective at the end of the 2nd year.

This study was conducted at an important chronological turning point with regard to the structure of the Greek community and Greek supplementary schools in the UK. This paper, following a mixed-methods methodology, aims to examine whether pedagogic practices and norms of the past that took place in Greek supplementary schools continue to exist today, in a word of continuous socio-political changes. This is undertaken with a retrospective examination of the education of Greek immigrant children in the UK in the past, an examination of how pre-existing, primordial notions of culture and ethnicity influence pedagogic practices and how these influence students' motivation and identity development at present. The findings call for a revisiting of policies, as well as curricular and pedagogic practices in Greek supplementary education, in order to reflect the current fluid and constantly changing context.

This paper discusses a requirements engineering process that exemplifies teacher-led design in the case of an envisioned system for adaptive learning. Such a design poses various challenges and still remains an open research issue in the field of adaptive learning. Starting from a scenario-based elicitation method, the whole process was highly participatory, with requirements validation in iterative cycles. The contribution of the paper is twofold: (a) it exposes the design of an environment which addresses the related challenges mentioned by the participants and the literature and (b) it suggests a methodology of framing key requirements into a set of critical success factors for meeting the end-users' expectations. The latter could be crucial in cases where the available resources are limited, but the quality of the product must not be sacrificed.

Many researchers have highlighted the central role that assessment plays in second language (L2) classrooms and have expressed the need for research into classroom-based language assessment (CBLA), an area that is gradually coming into its own in the field of language testing and assessment (e.g., Hasselgreen, 2008; Leung, 2014; Hill & McNamara, 2012; Turner, 2012). Motivated by the prominence of CBLA in recent discussions, the present study set out to investigate the CBLA practices, knowledge and skills of Greek and Cypriot primary school EFL teachers. The data was collected through teacher interviews and classroom-based tests. The results showed that teachers employ a summative orientation towards evaluating their students' performance and seem to have unclear ideas about the purposes and implementation of formative assessment, mainly due to lack of professional training in language assessment. The paper concludes with suggestions as to how EFL teachers' CBLA literacy can be enhanced.

This paper presents a critical account of the extent and the ways in which learner-centred education approaches are used as a tool for enhancing adult learning in distance learning universities as well as the conditions and restrictions they face. The exploration is illustrated by qualitative data from interviews with eight adult educators and 16 adult learners/students and adopts a case study approach within a phenomenological mode. In this study, learner-centred education approaches are seen as being at one end of the educational practice continuum and comprise of a number of elements, namely: motivation, epistemology, techniques and relationships that are used as a conceptual framework to guide data analysis and interpretation. Findings reveal the partial and unintentional use of learner-centred education approaches in the distance learning programmes explored and make recommendations for the implementation of learner-centred education in the teaching of adults in distance education universities.

This paper utilises qualitative and quantitative findings from the Facilitating Inclusive Education and Supporting the Transition Agenda (FIESTA) project that carried out a survey of professionals and focus groups/interviews with parents and children to understand the context of transition, inclusion and collaborative working. The paper contrasts parent, professional and pupil views of different approaches to transition for pupils with additional support requirements in the partner EU countries of the FIESTA project (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, Catalonia/Spain and Scotland/the United Kingdom). Transition from pre-school to primary school and from primary to secondary school is a period where professionals begin to meet and exchange knowledge. Although many significant developments have taken place, transition remains very challenging for European countries. This paper differentiates between transitions led by professionals, parents and children. It analyses transition practices in order to make recommendations on how we can move beyond rigid approaches to inclusion, shift power relations in service settings and enable more flexible, participatory and inter-relational approaches.

The paper reports on the experienced educator perspective regarding human-to-human connection in distance education. The research questions aimed to fill gaps in the existing research literature, to investigate the role of the educator, to discover how learning and subject content are affected by contextual factors, to find out if it enhances the sense of togetherness (immediacy and intimacy). The Informed Grounded Theory and the Community of Inquiry model provided a scaffolding framework for designing interview questions and analyzing findings. The outcome of the analysis formulated a new theory called tele-proximity, which gives an explanation of how presences could work in synchronicity. The findings may help educators gain insight into how to use Synchronous Video Communication (SVC) and lead future research to dig deeper into the field of synchronicity and the importance of audiovisual cues.

This paper presents the results of a European study investigating the extent to which the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) can help schools situated in socially disadvantaged areas to improve their effectiveness. At the beginning of the school year 2015-2016, a sample of 72 primary schools in four European countries (Cyprus, England, Greece and Ireland) was randomly allocated into the experimental and control groups. A questionnaire measuring the functioning of school factors related with the school learning environment, school policy for teaching and school evaluation was administered to all teachers of the school sample (n = 762). A battery of mathematics tests and a questionnaire measuring students' socioeconomic status (SES) were administered to all students of grades 4-6 of the school sample (n = 5560). The experimental group made use of DASI to develop improvement strategies and action plans. Feedback was provided to the control group regarding their students' achievement and the functioning of school factors in their school. ?n each country, DASI had an effect on promoting student learning outcomes. For the control group of each country, the total effect of SES on student achievement at the end of the intervention was bigger than the effect of SES at the beginning of the intervention. No increase in the effect of SES was identified in the schools of the experimental group. Implications of findings for establishing a theory-driven and evidence-based approach to improve the quality and the equity dimensions of school effectiveness are discussed and suggestions for future studies are provided.

This paper reports on the findings of a study that sought to examine firstly, the themes expressed in the art of disabled people in Greece and Cyprus and in interviews with these artists, and secondly, the ways that such art can serve the school curriculum. To this end, an electronic archive of the life stories and art of interest was analysed. The findings suggest that both the art and the interviews cover issues that are directly related to disability, and issues of general interest. A detailed analysis of two cases seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of the relevance of disabled artists and their work within the curriculum. The discussion focuses on issues emerging from the analysis, such as the potential of this art to enrich the school curriculum and promote inclusive education, and identifies the study's contribution to the international literature about disability, the arts and the curriculum.

This paper presents a comprehensive usability study conducted within the context of a Europe-wide project. The design of the evaluated e-learning platform is based on an innovative approach to the education of young Europeans by integrating into the curricula of a Europe-wide network of 14 schools different state-of-the-art technologies in e-learning. The evaluation methodology brings together end-user assessments and expert inspections, thus providing a detailed students', teachers' and experts' feedback. User testing integrates six empirical methods into a laboratory-based test. Usability inspection ascertains usability problems by means of recognized heuristics and enables an "educational evaluation" of the platform by means of three sets of criteria. The paper aims to present the effectiveness of the engaged evaluation methods as applied to e-learning platforms. It offers implications from the empirical findings of the user-based methods together with a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the employed inspection methods. Special attention is given to the aspect of educational evaluation. The conducted critical usability examination of a large-scale e-learning system across several countries in Europe revealed which of the chosen assessment methods should be combined to provide constructive and valuable improvement suggestions. A more significant contribution of this research is that the used evaluation approach proved successful, providing some general findings and know-how from the experience and could be reused by other researches because of its thorough structure. As there are relatively few existing accounts of usability assessment in the e-learning context, this paper adds to the body of knowledge. (Contains 15 figures.)

This paper presents a comparative examination of four local learning centres that provide learning opportunities throughout life in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. The paper aims to assess some of the strengths and weaknesses of different types of local learning centres and partnerships in South-Eastern Europe--in line with the value and impact of the Lisbon strategy for developing multipurpose local learning centres for "brining learning closer to home"--in order to draw some conclusions on how to promote greater collaboration and a culture of co-operation, in an area where a lifelong learning culture is still underdeveloped, compared with that in other parts of the European Union. (Contains 1 figure and 55 notes.)

As schools are increasingly encouraging students to use the Internet and web-based technology at home and in the classroom, concerns among some parents have increased. Today's parents have learned about computers as adults and did not receive guided participation as children either from their parents or from their teachers. The essence of this paper is twofold: (a) to investigate how parents view their children's opportunity to acquire new educational and interpersonal experiences from the introduction of collaborative learning activities by distance via videoconferencing in school settings and (b) to examine the differences in parents' attitudes to the use of the Internet and web based technologies by elementary students in the family home as an acknowledgment of their importance in their children's day-to-day social and educational activities, in two developing but still traditional European countries. Using data from two groups of parents (N = 98)--one from an urban province of Crete (Rethymno) and the other from a rural province of Cyprus (Avgorou), the present paper showed that parents respond to the "newness" of digital collaborative learning and interpersonal activities of their children according to their level of use and perceived compatibility of the information and communication technologies.

With the expansion of e-learning, the understanding and evaluation of already created e-learning environments is becoming an extremely important issue. One way to dealing with the problem is analysis of case studies, i.e. already created environments, from the reuse perspective. The paper presents a general framework and model to assess UNITE, the unified e-learning environment for schools, from the reuse perspective. UNITE is the e-learning environment of the ongoing EU project (FP6 IST-26964, 2006-2008, http://www.unite-ist.org/). UNITE assets are described using feature diagrams (FDs) telling us about the internal structure of UNITE; representing relationships among the compound and atomic features, thus enhancing better transparency of UNITE and in this way empowering reuse. The factors of UNITE influential to reuse with some concrete results are also presented. We provide analysis aiming to extract from the model the relevant information of two kinds: (1) which is influential to reuse in a positive sense, i.e., enhancing reuse (e.g., application of meta-design methodology for the scenarios description, classification of subjects in metadata, use of content management tools (e.g., Course editor, Metadata editor), multi-linguistic approach, international and local collaboration between teachers and students in e-learning scenario implementation and delivery, and methodological support, etc.) and (2) which is hindering reuse (e. g., age of the students, differences in national syllabus and national educational programmes, language, cultural and communication problems). Despite of some limitations of FDs, we found this notation useful because it allows the explicit representation of various aspects of the complex system (i.e., UNITE) focusing on variability of features and possible relationships and constraints. We focus on the aspects such as evaluation of the UNITE platform including tools, scenarios and content variability. (Contains 3 figures and 6 tables.)

The paper investigates the experience of employed higher education graduates in two countries with high rates of graduate unemployment. It examines the employment experience of graduates and their perceptions regarding the contribution of higher education to their employment and career prospects. Qualitative research was used to collect information from 58 university graduates in two Southern European countries, Greece and Cyprus. Respondents provided information on the skills and competencies acquired through higher education and utilised in the world of work. In both countries, modest links were reported between jobs and graduates' field of study, as well as between knowledge and non-knowledge-based competencies acquired through higher education, and the requirements of the graduates' jobs. The findings are used as the basis for suggestions that can enhance graduate employability and contribute to the management of the link between higher education and the labour market.

Purpose: This paper aims to present findings from an EU-funded international student-led energy saving competition (SAVES) on a scale previously unseen. There are multiple accounts of short-term projects and energy saving competitions encouraging pro-environmental behaviour change amongst students in university dormitories, but the purpose of this research is to provide evidence of consistent and sustained energy savings from student-led energy savings competitions, underpinned by practical action. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods approach (pre- and post-intervention surveys, focus groups and analysis of energy meter data) was used to determine the level of energy savings and quantifiable behaviour change delivered by students across participating university dormitories. Findings: This research has provided further insight into the potential for savings and behaviour change in university dormitories through relatively simple actions. Whilst other interventions have shown greater savings, this project provided consistent savings over two years of 7 per cent across a large number of university dormitories in five countries through simple behaviour changes. Research limitations/implications: An energy dashboard displaying near a real-time leaderboard was added to the engagement in the second year of the project. Whilst students were optimistic about the role that energy dashboards could play, the evidence is not here to quantify the impact of dashboards. Further research is required to understand the potential of dashboards to contribute to behavioural change savings and in constructing competitions between people and dormitories that are known to each other. Social implications SAVES provided engagement with students, enabling, empowering and motivating them to save energy -- focusing specifically on the last stage of the "Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action" framework. Automated meter reading data was used in the majority of participating dormitories to run near real-time energy challenges through an energy dashboard that informed students how much energy they saved compared to a target, and encouraged peer-to-peer learning and international cooperation through a virtual twinning scheme. Originality/value Findings from energy saving competitions in universities are typically from small-scale and short-term interventions. SAVES was an energy-saving competition in university dormitories facilitated by the UK National Union of Students in five countries reaching over 50,000 students over two academic years (incorporating dormitories at 17 universities). As such it provides clear and important evidence of the real-world long-term potential efficiency savings of such interventions.

This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to all Grade 4 students (N = 10,742) at the beginning and end of school year 2010-2011. National policies were measured through (a) content analysis of policy documents, (b) interviews with policymakers, and (c) head-teacher questionnaires. Multilevel analyses revealed that most aspects of national policies for teaching and SLE were associated with student achievement in each subject irrespective of the source of data used to measure them. Implications are, finally, drawn.

Ample evidence indicates that a person's human capital is important for success on the labor market in terms of both wages and employment prospects. However, unlike the efforts to identify the impact of school attainment on labor-market outcomes, the literature on returns to cognitive skills has not yet provided convincing evidence that the estimated returns can be causally interpreted. Using the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, this paper explores several approaches that aim to address potential threats to causal identification of returns to skills, in terms of both higher wages and better employment chances. We address measurement error by exploiting the fact that PIAAC measures skills in several domains. Furthermore, we estimate instrumental-variable models that use skill variation stemming from school attainment and parental education to circumvent reverse causation. Results show a strikingly similar pattern across the diverse set of countries in our sample. In fact, the instrumental-variable estimates are consistently larger than those found in standard least-squares estimations. The same is true in two "natural experiments," one of which exploits variation in skills from changes in compulsory-schooling laws across U.S. states. The other one identifies technologically induced variation in broadband Internet availability that gives rise to variation in ICT skills across German municipalities. Together, the results suggest that least-squares estimates may provide a lower bound of the true returns to skills in the labor market.

Background: The dynamic model of educational effectiveness (DMEE) is a comprehensive theoretical framework including factors that are important for school learning, based on consistent findings within educational effectiveness research. Purpose: This study investigates the impact of teacher and school factors of DMEE on mathematics and science achievement, and identifies factors with equalising qualities in terms of helping low-achieving student groups to catch up with their better-achieving peers. Sample: Data were retrieved from a large-scale, longitudinal project conducted in 571 classes in 334 schools in 6 European countries (Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Slovenia). In each country, a sample of about 50 schools was drawn, and tests in mathematics and science were administered to all grade 4 students (N = 10,742) at the beginning and end of school-year 2010-2011. Design and methods: Data on teacher factors were collected through student questionnaires, and data on school factors were collected through teacher questionnaires. Two-level regression models were applied. Interaction effects between the factor and the group composition were estimated, while controlling for prior achievement. Results: Our results confirm the importance of most tested teacher factors (except for modelling and qualitative structuring) and all tested school factors of DMEE for effective math and science education. The majority of these factors appear to make an even greater difference for low-achieving student groups. Conclusions: Our results provide further validity to DMEE at classroom and school level, and indicate that most factors make a greater difference for low-achieving student groups. Thus, effective teaching is an important aspect for reducing the achievement gap. This illustrates the importance of placing the most effective teachers in schools with the highest percentage of underachieving students. Policy should encourage good teachers to teach in low-achieving schools by making these jobs more attractive, both financially and in terms of work conditions.

In this paper, we examine the ways the history of mathematics is integrated in the national textbooks of Cyprus and Greece. Our data-driven analyses suggest that the references identified can be clustered in four categories: (a) biographical references about mathematicians or historical references regarding the origins of a mathematical concept (b) references to the history of a mathematical method or formula containing a solution or proof, (c) mathematical tasks of purely cognitive elements that require a solution, explanation or proof and (d) tasks that encourage discussion or the production of a project that would connect the history of mathematics with life outside mathematics. Furthermore, we employed a framework around the levels of cognitive demands derived from the literature to analyse the identified mathematical tasks.

This study investigates the extent to which the factors included in the dynamic model of educational effectiveness are associated with student achievement gains in six different European countries. At classroom level, the dynamic model refers to eight factors relating to teacher behavior in the classroom: orientation, structuring, questioning, teaching-modeling, application, management of time, teacher role in making classroom a learning environment, and classroom assessment. This paper presents results concerned with the impact of the teacher factors on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 primary schools (n?=?334) was drawn. Written tests in mathematics and science were administered to all grade 4 students (n?=?10,742) at the beginning and at the end of the school year 2010-2011. Students were also asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the eight teacher factors of the dynamic model. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test the construct validity of the student questionnaire. Both across and within country analyses revealed that student ratings are reliable and valid for measuring the functioning of the teacher factors included in the dynamic model. Multilevel analyses revealed that teacher factors are associated with student achievement gains in mathematics and science. Implications for the development of educational effectiveness research and for improving quality of teaching are drawn.

This paper argues for the value of using student ratings to measure quality of teaching. An international study to test the validity of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness was conducted. At classroom level, the model consists of eight factors relating to teacher behaviour: orientation, structuring, questioning, teaching modelling, application, management of time, teacher role in making classroom a learning environment and assessment. In each participating country (i.e. Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 primary schools was used and all grade 4 students (n?=?9967) were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the eight factors of the dynamic model. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test the construct validity of the questionnaire. Both across- and within-country analyses revealed that student ratings are reliable and valid for measuring the functioning of the teacher factors of the dynamic model. Implications for teacher education are drawn.

Increasing European integration and European education policies are fuelling political and academic debates over the meaning of a "European identity" and a "European citizenship" and their potential relationship(s) to national and/or state identities. These debates are especially fraught in a case such as Cyprus, a case characterized by an intractable socio-political problem of ethnic conflict and war that stems from identity, citizenship, and the politics of recognition. Cyprus must respond to demands of revisiting citizenship and identity as a condition of EU membership and as a response to increasing international and internal pressure for resolving the existing division. This paper explores how European citizenship is constructed in Greek-Cypriot policy, curricula, and textbooks for civic education, and how citizenship is positioned in relation to national and state identities. Although "Europe" provides a framework from which policy documents increasingly draw to introduce curricular innovation, European citizenship is not substantially addressed in the syllabi and textbooks analysed. Nationalistic discourses of citizenship "appropriate" "Europe" in ways which legitimize both ethno- and Euro-centrism and which fail to alleviate existing tensions between ethno-national and state identities in Cyprus. (Contains 1 table and 11 notes.)

This article focuses on geographical education in Greece and Cyprus (Southern Cyprus). The two countries have different sets of books for their educational systems, approved by the relevant Ministries of Education. Since the teaching of these officially approved sets of books is compulsory, the context of geographical education in these countries is essentially determined by these schoolbooks. Despite their great significance to geographical education, we still lack an evaluation of the relative positive and negative aspects of these books. It is thus the aim of this paper to contribute towards such a comparative evaluation. All the schoolbooks are evaluated with regard to the selection and presentation of the educative material relating to topics and methods of geography. The evaluation of the two sets of schoolbooks shows that the approaches to geography are significantly different in Greece and Cyprus and, to a certain extent, it can be said that the relative advantages of each country's schoolbooks are missing from the other. Future editions might place a greater emphasis on quantitative aspects, theoretical problems and methods of geography.

The current paper is a comparative study of the implementation of the Seveso III Directive in Greece and Cyprus. Specifically, the study focuses on article 13 of the Directive, which concerns spatial planning, and investigates both the relevant planning and development control practices that are followed in Greece and Cyprus, as well as the production of tangible results concerning the protection of the population and the infrastructure in the case of a large-scale industrial accident. The analysis covers all three main areas of concern of article 13 of the Directive, namely: the planning of land uses near Seveso establishments, the control of the development of Seveso establishments or other uses located near Seveso establishments, and the actions that should be planned with regards to existing establishments. The analysis concludes that article 13 has been successfully integrated in the Cypriot legislation, since its provisions are associated to and applied through established practices and procedures, while the produced local legislation now covers all three main areas of interest of the Seveso Directive. Due to the above, both the population and the infrastructure enjoy comprehensive protection in case of a large-scale industrial accident. On the contrary, in Greece, the integration of article 13 is fragmented and incomplete, which leads to insufficient protection of the population and the infrastructure. In particular, Greece is lacking a national and regional policy framework for the allocation and development of Seveso establishments, while, at local level, the absence of a coherent policy framework leads each local plans to suggest different and sometimes conflicting policies. In addition, the framework for the control of the development of uses located in the vicinity of Seveso establishments is unclear, while, till today, there has not been developed a policy framework to tackle the challenges associated with existing establishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the state of Greek-Turkish relations in light of recent developments in the reconfiguration of Turkish foreign policy. Following twenty years of détente and relative calm in bilateral relations, the year 2020 witnessed two escalations in Greek-Turkish relations, one in March involving refugees and immigrants on the Greek-Turkish land border and another in August involving military vessels of the two countries. The refugee crisis and potential military conflict regarding energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean have raised tensions at a moment the political and institutional tools for the promotion of conflict resolution between Greece and Turkey linked to Turkey's EU membership perspective appear to be obsolete. This paper seeks an answer to the question of whether structural or ideational factors played the most prominent role in the recent escalation of the Greek-Turkish disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E, S, and G: Environmental, Social, and Governance is a framework regarding the sustainability of legal entities. The EU through Regulations and Directives by setting a minimum mandatory threshold for environmental protection, climate change, green deal, social responsibility, and corporate governance aims to unify the rules in member states towards a holistic approach relating to economic growth and social fairness. In that regard, Greece and Cyprus hold obligations to adopt the EU legislation and policies. This paper focuses on two objectives, i.e., the analysis of compliance in terms of Greek and Cypriot laws and the broader response of business practices to embrace the EU and national laws and policies for ESG investments, operations, and growth. The paper uses two main methods, i.e., a review the of literature and qualitative methods of legal and comparative analysis under a holistic approach. As a conclusion of the findings of this paper, it is stated that the ESG factors regarding corporate sustainability are now a general framework of guiding principles in the EU and both in Greece and Cyprus both at legislative and practical levels under a broader, holistic approach. This approach further guides the interconnection of environmental protection, climate change issues, social responsibility, and corporate governance as key factors for sustainability, growth, and wealth for the future in the EU, in Greece and Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present E-ViVa (Ellinike Vivliothikonomike Vase), the national Hellenic fulltext database on Librarianship and Information Science, developed by the Library of the University of Cyprus. The objectives of E-ViVa are to identify, locate, gather, organize, index, digitize, preserve and promote the results of the research conducted in Greece and Cyprus in the scientific fields of Archival, Library and Information Sciences. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides data concerning the volume, the coverage, the inclusion criteria, the content, the format and the platform of the database, as well as the steps that have been followed for the development. The legal framework related with the copyright issues that are raised are also discussed. Findings – A comparison is attempted between the coverage of E-ViVa and the relative records included in five subject-related databases: eLIS, LISA, LISTA, ISI-SSCI and SCOPUS. Finally the future plans for the project are presented. Research limitations/implications – Future plans concerning E-ViVa are based on the completeness of the database, the linguistic exploitation of the terms used through time and check of Lotka's law application concerning authors. Practical implications – As the vast majority of the records and fulltext are not provided by any other organized database, E-ViVa emerges as a “must search first” for any future author of scientific paper concerning the situation on librarianship research in Greece and Cyprus. The case of E-ViVa and the methodology that was followed can be used as a pattern for developing national databases on LIS or other fields. Social implications – E-ViVa is offered as an open access database with fulltext. Originality/value – E-ViVa is the only fulltext database on Librarianship and Information Science, which concentrates the related publications produced in or related to Greece and Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Economic & Social Research is the property of Abant Izzet Baysal University, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – Every year thousands of acres are burned and a number of people lose their lives in forest fires that increasingly surpass the wild land limit and lead on to touristic, urban areas. By and large, Mediterranean countries rely highly on offering a tourist product based on sea, sun, culture and nature. While the sea and sun are not affected by fire catastrophes, places of cultural and natural beauty are indeed hit; tourists end up being uninformed with no proper guidance from the firefighting authorities. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper attempts to highlight the relation between fire catastrophes and tourism development, to identify if and how state authorities take into account tourists in the planning and management of appropriate measures. A comparative study between Greece and Cyprus is presented. A number of interviews with stakeholders on the policy and operational level were conducted and the results and their implications are presented. Findings – Planning and suppression is complicated with a number of actors involved in various stages; national tourism organizations in both countries do not take part in the information or planning process. There is an emerging need for the provision of useful, comprehensive, practical information aimed at tourists. Research limitations/implications – The findings of the paper are based in a number of interviews with key policy makers as well as key operational commanders. The participation of the above in the policy making as well as operational phase shows a number of limitations. This paper presents a qualitative approach to the subject. A follow-up quantitative study is already planned. Practical implications – Lessons learnt from previous catastrophes, in-depth analysis of the existing "modus operandi" and "rules of engagement" should provide the necessary background for creating new risk-based, comprehensive, focused communication campaigns. Social implications – Safer societies and lower impact on the environment are the main outcomes of a concerted communication campaign. Tourism represents and multiplies the image of the country as a whole to the world; a solution to the problem would offer added value. Originality/value – The paper is based on a number of in-depth interviews with actors that took part in the actual handling of the two major catastrophes in Cyprus and Greece. The outcome of the interviews is presented for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper gives an overview of how the armed struggle of EOKA against the British colonial rule in Cyprus between 1955 and 1959 affected relations between Greece and Great Britain. More specifically, it focuses on the Greek perspective on how the Anglo-Greek relation was evolved due to EOKA's insurgency, by exploring the attitude of Athens towards EOKA, by investigating whether or not the Greek government backed the armed organisation (and by explaining its reasons for doing so) as well as by dealing with the debate between Greece and Britain at the United Nations in order to support their position in relation to EOKA's insurgent activities. It argues that Athens perceived EOKA's struggle as a calamity on Anglo-Greek relations and to a great extent as an additional obstacle in the way for solving the Cyprus question. For this reason, it is suggested that, by making EOKA dependent on supplies from Greece, the Karamanlis's government, tried to exercise indirect control over its activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several important habitats have become threatened in the last few centuries in the Mediterranean Basin due to major changes adopted in land‐use practices. The consequent loss of natural and seminatural orchid habitats leads to the appreciation of small anthropogenic habitats, such as cemeteries and roadside verges. Colonization of cemeteries and roadside verges by orchids has long been known, but no study to date compared the suitability of these two anthropogenic habitats for orchids. Therefore, in this paper our aim was to survey cemeteries and roadside verges and to compare these two habitats regarding their role in conserving Mediterranean terrestrial orchids. We conducted field surveys in three Mediterranean islands, Cyprus, Crete, and Lesbos, where both cemeteries and roadside verges were sampled on a geographically representative scale. We found a total of almost 7,000 orchid individuals, belonging to 77 species in the two anthropogenic habitat types. Roadside verges hosted significantly more individuals than cemeteries in Crete and Lesbos, and significantly more species across all three islands. Our results suggest that although cemeteries have a great potential conservation value in other parts of the world, intensive maintenance practices that characterized cemeteries in these three islands renders them unable to sustain valuable plant communities. On the other hand, roadside verges play a prominent role in the conservation of Mediterranean orchids in Cyprus and Greece. The pioneer status of roadside verges facilitates their fast colonization, while roads serve as ecological corridors in fragmented landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During crises the newsmedia are expected to provide relevant and accurate information to help citizens comprehend the crisis and act upon it. As a source-driven practice, journalism relies on a variety of sources to validate news and provide perspectives. The disruptive nature of a crisis though raises questions about how journalists select sources and what these choices say about professional autonomy and criticality. Considering source choices as newsgathering venues and strategies, and drawing on semi-structured interviews with journalists in Greece and Cyprus, the study explores the factors that shaped journalists' sourcing practices during the COVID-19 crisis. We find that journalists over-relied on political sources and selective authoritative voices compromising the tenets of verification and independence. The fear to convey inaccurate or 'biased' information amid disinformation flows, bolstered journalist's elite orientation. Professional precarity and economic pressures are found to further worsen the 'lived experience' of journalists limiting their ability to question and scrutinise power in times of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the ways the history of mathematics is integrated in the national textbooks of Cyprus and Greece. Our data-driven analyses suggest that the references identified can be clustered in four categories: (a) biographical references about mathematicians or historical references regarding the origins of a mathematical concept (b) references to the history of a mathematical method or formula containing a solution or proof, (c) mathematical tasks of purely cognitive elements that require a solution, explanation or proof and (d) tasks that encourage discussion or the production of a project that would connect the history of mathematics with life outside mathematics. Furthermore, we employed a framework around the levels of cognitive demands derived from the literature to analyse the identified mathematical tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Historyczne is the property of Polska Akademia Nauk, Warszawska Drudkarnia Naukowa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the evolution of brewing during the financial crisis on the basis of four countries, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and Portugal. These countries asked for financial assistance and imposed restructuring programs that exacerbated the financial crisis. The examined period is extended from 2008 to 2017 and it is a period during which the adjustment programs were applied to these countries. The purpose of this article is to see if during the crisis an industry can have growth prospects. This search is based on the fact that during the crisis some countries or sectors or products can perform better than the whole. The examination was based on a comparative analysis between the four countries but also with the European Union countries considered as a whole. The paper focused on the comparative evolution regarding production, consumption, number of breweries and microbreweries and direct employment. The results showed that brewery production in the four countries was affected by the country's GDP growth. However it increased particularly in the second half of the period considered. This evolution was positively affected by the growth of tourism, especially in Greece and Portugal. The creation of breweries by small producers, especially in the second half of the period, is characteristic of the brewery's growth. New microbreweries have helped to create new jobs in countries with higher unemployment than the EU as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]