Training of Teachers On the Teaching of Natural Sciences

The 2011-12 School Year

The training of teachers for the Natural Sciences classes included an initial three-hour introductory training, six meetings concentrated on specific issues, and many informal cooperation meetings with teachers.

At the beginning of December, 2011, a general training seminar was conducted in each of the three big cities of Thrace, as follows:

The aim of the training was to inform the teachers of the practicability of differentiating their instruction in the classes of Natural Sciences, and also of the characteristic teaching scenarios that support such a differentiation.

In the first five months of 2012 (January-May) six training meetings were organized, each concentrated on a specific issue. One of the trainers, Mr. Hr. Gontzaridis, met with the teachers who work for the Project. The meetings that took place aimed either at correcting teaching practices at schools where the Compensatory Classes did not seem to yield any positive results, or at generating ideas from, and noting down practices of, colleagues who work at schools where Compensatory Classes did seem to yield good results.

In addition to the above intra-school training meetings, many more informal cooperation meetings with teachers who teach Natural Sciences took place at the “Laboratory Center of Natural Sciences – EKFE” of Alexandroupolis. In cooperation with the director of the EKFE of Alexandroupolis, the trainers and teachers organized an afternoon a visit of pupils from the Evening Secondary School of Alexandroupolis to the Laboratories of EKFE. The pupils in their visit to the laboratories worked on chemistry experiments that had been prepared by the director of EKFE.

The 2010 – 11 School Year

Presentation of the Educational Materials for the Natural Sciences Classes
On 1/13/2011, in Xanthi, and on 1/14/2011, in Komotini.
The basic aim of the meeting with teachers of the PE4 category (i.e., teachers who teach Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, etc.) of the three prefectures of Thrace, that took place as part of the general training conducted on the 13^th and the 14^th of January 2011,  was to inform them of the content and the methodological approach of the training for Natural Sciences which they were going to receive. The training would consist of three units.
Further information.

2^nd Training Meeting for the Natural Sciences Classes 

The second training meeting for the classes of Natural Sciences took place on the 18^th, 19^th, and the 20^th of January, 2011, in Alexandroupolis, Komotini, and Xanthi, respectively. Its topic was the exploratory instruction approach for Natural Sciences classes.
Further information

3^rd Training Meeting for the Natural Sciences Classes
The third training meeting for the classes of Natural Sciences took place on the 1^st, 2^nd, and the 3^rd of February, 2011, in Alexandroupolis, Komotini, and Xanthi, respectively. Its topic was the teaching approach called “guided discovery” in Natural Sciences.
Further information.

4^th Training Meeting for the Natural Sciences Classes
The fourth training meeting for the classes of Natural Sciences took place on the 15^th, the 16^th, and the 17^th of February, 2011, in Alexandroupolis, Komotini, and Xanthi, respectively. Its topic was the differentiated instruction, and how to benefit from public interest for the contents of Biology-DNA.
Further information.

5^th Training Meeting for the Natural Sciences Classes
The fifth training meeting for the classes of Natural Sciences took place on the 15^th, the 16^th, and the 17^th of March, 2011, in Alexandroupolis, Komotini, and in Xanthi, respectively. Its topic was the teaching of energy.
Further information.

6^th Training Meeting for the Natural Sciences Classes
The sixth training meeting for the classes of Natural Sciences took place on the 29^th and the 31^st of March and the 6^th of April, 2011, in Alexandroupolis, in Xanthi, and in Komotini, respectively. Its topic was how to approach language-wise (e.g., using simple language) the teaching of basic mechanisms of function of the human eye.
Further information.

7^th Training Meeting for the Natural Sciences Classes

The seventh training meeting for the classes of Natural Sciences took place on the 12^th, 13^th, and the 14^th of April 2011, in Alexandroupolis, in Xanthi, and in Komotini, respectively. Its topic was “Thermodynamic equilibrium: A Teaching Suggestion Based On Events in History and in Natural Sciences”.
Further information.

Training Meetings for Compensatory Teaching in Natural Sciences

On March 22, 2011, in Komotini, and on March 23 in Xanthi and in Alexandroupolis, training meetings were organized with teachers who teach Natural Sciences within the framework of Compensatory Classes organized by the Project at secondary and high schools with Minority pupils.
Further information.