Abstract
The Portfolio in the kindergarten classroom is being studied with ever-increasing interest, as research shows that it is not just a method of assessing children's learning through the selection and collection of their works. Its importance mainly concerns the procedures carried out in the context of its operation with the cooperation of teacher, student, classmates and parents. These procedures draw their principles from constructivist theories of learning and make the Portfolio for all involved a source of acquisition of competences for learning, development and democracy. As a multiparametric method, the Portfolio requires the constant support of teachers for its implementation. This PhD thesis aims to research the parameters of the implementation of the Portfolio in kindergartens in Greece. To accomplish this goal, the following are examined: a) the views and practices of the kindergarten teachers regarding the implementation of the Portfolio in their classroom, b) the views of the ...
The Portfolio in the kindergarten classroom is being studied with ever-increasing interest, as research shows that it is not just a method of assessing children's learning through the selection and collection of their works. Its importance mainly concerns the procedures carried out in the context of its operation with the cooperation of teacher, student, classmates and parents. These procedures draw their principles from constructivist theories of learning and make the Portfolio for all involved a source of acquisition of competences for learning, development and democracy. As a multiparametric method, the Portfolio requires the constant support of teachers for its implementation. This PhD thesis aims to research the parameters of the implementation of the Portfolio in kindergartens in Greece. To accomplish this goal, the following are examined: a) the views and practices of the kindergarten teachers regarding the implementation of the Portfolio in their classroom, b) the views of the School Advisors on the implementation of the Portfolio by the kindergarten teachers and the support they provided to them based on their institutional role and c) the views of the parents regarding their cooperation and their role in the implementation of their child's Portfolio, as well as its usefulness. In order to wholly answer the research questions, it was considered more appropriate to combine the sources of data extraction and subsequently the methods and techniques of their collection and analysis. Specifically, interviews were conducted: a) with active kindergarten teachers and b) with the School Advisors to whom the Educational Region the former belonged to, while c) a questionnaire was given to the parents of the students who attended the classes of the above kindergarten teachers. For the selection of the sample, the method of simple stratified random sampling was applied. The sample of the main research consisted of seventy (70) kindergarten teachers, fifteen (15) School Advisors and five hundred and seventy-one (571) parents. The means of data collection were formed based on the literature and were piloted before being applied to the final research. To analyze the data from the interviews, the method of Thematic Analysis was applied. The quantitative data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed with the statistical program SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 19.0. The answers of the parents to the two (2) open questions of the questionnaire were analyzed with the method of Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis. The results showed the major training needs of kindergarten teachers, but also of School Advisors of the sample on basic issues of implementing the Portfolio. Furthermore, it has been found that kindergarten teachers did not have a solid theoretical background that would help them modify their beliefs and practices and be flexible in the implementation of the Portfolio. Moreover, there were found agreements, but also significant differences between the views of School Advisors and kindergarten teachers of their Region on the parameters of implementation of the Portfolio. Regarding the cooperation of the parents, although most parents were aware of the Portfolio’s existence, a very high percentage had not had access to it either in kindergarten or at home and had never cooperated with their child’s teacher concerning the content of its Portfolio. In the conclusions, the results of the research are discussed in combination.
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