Freinet Pedagogy at Teacher Education Program of the Athens University of Economics and Business
" "In Frene pedagogy, the child cultivates its mind, heart and spirit within the collective, the group, the school "community"
On Friday 14/12/2018, a series of pedagogical trainings of the students of "AUEB Teacher Education Program" were completed. The speakers of these three experiential workshops were the members of Skasiarxeio - active teachers of Primary and Secondary Education, Mr. Babis Baltas, Mrs. Catherine Alexiadis, Mrs. Maria Zacharopoulou, Mrs. Aikaterini Pauris and Mrs. Stella Badikian.
At the first meeting, which took place on 30/11/2018, Mrs. Alexiadis and Mr. Baltas made an introduction to the students on Freinet Pedagogy, on Skasiarxeio and cooperative learning schools. Through an experiential workshop, students had the opportunity to create the ideal school and discuss what makes a school ideal. Emphasis was placed on the importance of the group and how a school classroom, a school, an entire educational community can work effectively if children first learn how to function as a group.
At the second meeting, Mrs. Pauris and Mrs. Zacharopoulou presented to the students the concepts of the classroom board and "What's new?". They highlighted the pedagogical benefits of these two Freinet techniques and followed up with an experiential workshop, which included a simulation of a classroom board, where a specific decision had to be made. In this way, students took on the roles of school students in order to experience classroom board in practice. It was followed by a brief screening of a class board by a Freinet elementary school in France.
At the third and final meeting, Mrs. Alexiadis and Mrs. Badadian presented more aspects of the classroom board and a host of other elements of Freinet Pedagogy, such as progress zones, collaborative learning and more. The students participated in an experiential simulation workshop of "What's New" and then were split into groups to work together to solve a problem. The project was designed by Graduates of the Program, Mrs. Andromachi Toumanidou, Mrs. Marianna Spanidis and Mrs. Hara Gritsopoulou. The Tep AUEB students in the simulation took on the role of students in class.For example, one student took on the role of a strong student in the group and another a weak student.
All three meetings ended with a feedback discussion on the students' queries and their thoughts on the Freinet Pedagogy.
We would like to thank the Skasiarxeio team, namely Mr. Babis Baltas, Mrs. Catherine Alexiadis, Mrs. Maria Zacharopoulou, Mrs. Catherine Pauris and Mrs. Stella Badikian for their excellent and constructive cooperation, during the winter semester,with the AUEB Teacher Education Program.
You can see photo material from the experiential workshop of 14/12/2018 here.