Learning Methods in Greek Kindergarten and Pre-kindergarten Schools: Traditional Method vs New Technology

In the early 2000’s new technology methods were introduced in Greek kindergarten schools, which enriched the learning methods that were used before 2000, enabling teachers to embrace this technological era. Using new technologies and promoting them to students doesn’t mean that the learning outcomes will be better. Will the students learn by using new technologies? Will the learning outcome be improved? These are some of the basic questions this article is about. This work compares the performance of the students on traditional learning methods to new technology learning methods in order to investigate which of the two methods has the best learning outcomes. Moreover, the intelligence of the pupils was evaluated by the use of Raven's Colour Progressive Matrix (CPM). The results of the current research in a sample of 1183 Greek pupils indicated that pupils tend to perform better by the use of new technologies. Furthermore, the level of intelligence for the majority of the sample ranged from normal to high intelligence and does not have a strong influence on pupils’ performance. Keywords: New technologies, Kindergarten, Pre-kindergarten DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-26-08 Publication date:September 30th 202

Parents’ perceptions over the use of New Technologies in Education

This article analyses parents' views on the role that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays in the context of pedagogy. It also refers to parents' beliefs, fears and expectations towards new technologies. It uses data that were collected from primary schools and kindergartens of the region of Eastern Macedonian and Thrace in Greece. 1450 parents participated in this research, 869 were from primary schools and 581 from kindergartens.  The results showed that parents (both from primary school and kindergarten) believe that new technologies help their children in the learning process and they believe that new technologies are beneficial for their children. Despite the fact that parents accept new technologies in their children's lives only for educational purposes, they don't want their children to spend a lot of time on the computer, because they are afraid that their children will not be able to socialize properly

Job satisfaction in the social care sector in Greece: A public - nonprofit sector comparison

Although job satisfaction research has been carried out for many decades (Locke, 1976, Quarstein et al, 1992), understanding what affects the job satisfaction of employees and the differences across sectors is a very timely research topic. Social care in Greece comprises a very complicated system, where public, private and nonprofit actors coexist and function in parallel on an ad hoc basis and without institutional coordination. Job satisfaction is undisputedly connected with success in any type of organization, and comparative approaches are ideal tools for the deepest understanding of this topic. We use the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985) to measure job satisfaction among professionals working in social care in Greece, and we compare data between sectors. Data analysis show that these professionals are generally more satisfied than their colleagues in both the private and the public sectors. The standard methodology used could enable further cross-national comparisons

Spreadsheet error detection: an empirical examination in the context of Greece

The personal computers era made advanced programming tasks available to end users. Spreadsheet models are one of the most widely used applications that can produce valuable results with minimal training and effort. However, errors contained in most spreadsheets may be catastrophic and difficult to detect. This study attempts to investigate the influence of experience and spreadsheet presentation on the error finding performance by end users. To reach the target of the study, 216 business and finance students participated in a task of finding errors in a simple free cash flow model. The findings of the study reveal that presentation of the spreadsheet is of major importance as far as the error finding performance is concerned, while experience does not seem to affect students on their performance. Further research proposals and limitations of the study are, moreover, discussed

Intellectual capital and business performance: an empirical study for the Greek listed companies

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the four elements of intellectual capital (human capital, customer capital, structural capital and innovation capital) and their relationship with business performance in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). This study was conducted based on a psychometrically validated questionnaire developed and launched by Bontis (1997) and Bontis et al. (2000). Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Model have been used as statistical methods to analyse the five hypotheses developed. Our results are designed to extend it to degrees consistent with those revealed by Bontis et al. (2000) for a Malaysian set of industries. In particularly, we found that: (a) human capital is important and positively associated to customer capital in both service and non-service industries; (b) customer capital has an influence in structural capital rather than in non-service industries; (c) innovation capital seems to have an important and positive relationship to structural capital, regardless of the industry type; and (d) structural capital has a positive relationship to business performance in both industry types, and especially in non-service industries.peer-reviewe

Intellectual Capital and Business Performance: An Empirical Study for the Greek Listed Companies

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the four elements of intellectual capital (human capital, customer capital, structural capital and innovation capital) and their relationship with business performance in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). This study was conducted based on a psychometrically validated questionnaire developed and launched by Bontis (1997) and Bontis et al. (2000). Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Model have been used as statistical methods to analyse the five hypotheses developed. Our results are designed to extend it to degrees consistent with those revealed by Bontis et al. (2000) for a Malaysian set of industries. In particularly, we found that: (a) human capital is important and positively associated to customer capital in both service and non-service industries; (b) customer capital has an influence in structural capital rather than in non-service industries; (c) innovation capital seems to have an important and positive relationship to structural capital, regardless of the industry type; and (d) structural capital has a positive relationship to business performance in both industry types, and especially in non-service industries.Intellectual Capital, human capital, customer capital, structural capital and innovation capital, business performance, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling

Species diversity in the cryptic abyssal holothurian Psychropotes longicauda (Echinodermata)

Despite the plethora of studies on swallow-water invertebrates, almost nothing is known about the evolution and population structure of deep-sea species at the global scale. The aim of this study was to assess phylogeographic patterns of a common and cosmopolitan, predominantly abyssal sea cucumber, Psychropotes longicauda, based on samples from the Atlantic, Southern, Indian and Pacific oceans. Sequences of the mitochondrial COI and 16S genes were analysed for 128 specimens of P. longicauda. In addition, temporal genetic variation was investigated at one site, the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE Atlantic Ocean over a period of 34 years. Two distinct lineages within the global distribution were identified. The sister clades probably could be classified as separate species based on the observed genetic divergence (>5.0%) and phylogenetic reconstruction with indications of a Southern Hemisphere origin. Moreover, significant population differentiation was detected between the North Atlantic and localities in both the Pacific and Indian oceans. No bathymetric structuring was detected among lineages. Temporal genetic shifts were detected in a time series of samples from 1977 to 2011. Our data confirm the previously suspected cryptic species diversity throughout the wide distributional range previously attributed to the single species P. longicauda. The presence of sympatric species in the North Pacific and Indian Oceans has been underestimated by previous morphological analyses. The differentiation at the population level detected in the main lineages among the four oceans could suggest restricted gene flow despite wide-scale dispersal potential of the species