Thymari
Publications & the Kosteas-Geitonas School, 1990 ISBN 960-7161-37-8
Pages 260
Tatiana Averoff has followed up her first book on “Teaching children to work together” with a second important, and in my opinion ground-breaking, offering in the field of Educational Psychology which focuses on learning through cooperation. The methodology she presents is practicable, innovative and adaptable to a range of teaching situations. [...] She has given us the ‘handbook for democratic learning’ Greece needs so very much.
Thanos Grammenos, Thymari publications .
Tatiana Averoff-Ioannou’s first book “Teaching children to work together” also championed solidarity, spontaneity, resistance to the cult of the individual and developing the ability to cooperate. However, while her new offering shares the same aims and methodology, it differs in using a particular book whose knowledge field is laid down by the school curriculum. [...] The author has used her academic knowledge and teacher’s sensitivity to produce a pioneering work which seeks to gradually facilitate and promote group cooperation without unsettling the balances specified in the Year Four curriculum.
Eleftherios Geitonas, director of the Kosteas-Geitonas School.
Environmental Studies is a lesson well suited to the exchange of ideas and to getting kids debating, disagreeing, agreeing and drawing conclusions as they engage in research and with given issues for the first time. Which is why, when I first discussed the group work programme she had prepared for this class, I found that Tatiana’s views accorded with mine, but also with the underlying principles of the Curriculum: in this lesson, the emphasis is not on knowledge for its own sake, but on the process whereby knowledge is acquired. This shifts the focus from the teacher to the children, and to group learning.
Roula Frangodimitri-Lianou, 4th Year primary teacher.
I have to admit that working with group can often be as tiring as it is headache-inducing and wearing on one’s patience... That said, as time went by, the groups began to produce work that made me proud and revealed my students’ hidden strengths. What’s more, I could see the kids were happy, which made me happy, too, but also introduced a change in me and my teaching, as I began to listen to my pupils more and to go with their flow. I’m sure the children learned a lot more as they searched for and found information for themselves, discussing things and reaching decisions. The powerful bond also developed between all the kids in the class, as I reformed the groups mid-year to ensure that everyone got to work with everyone else.
Amalia Kondylaki-Zerva, 4th Year primary teacher.
...Group work was fun, but it also taught me to work with others, to listen to other people’s opinions and to comment on it.
Tania
...We all said what we thought, so no one had any complaints.
Alexandra.
...I think it’s good for the kids, as everyone had something to do.
Dimitris.
...Time passed more quickly and more enjoyably.
Sofia.
...We worked together really well, though we did make a bit of a racket.
Giorgos.
...It helped us communicate with others; we’d always argued before.
Sini.
...We talked over the stuff we didn’t understand, too.
Katerina.
...We can say what we think, and not get embarrassed if we get something wrong.
Thanasis.
...I liked it because I learnt to work with boys, too. And I made more and better friends with the kids in my class, because it stopped mattering if they were good students or not.
Meropi.
...Our work got better and looked better, too.
Giorgos.
...We did a lot of stuff together, and the projects were really interesting.
Anna.
...The work we produced was better than what we could have done alone.
Vasilis.
...I think we should keep working this way, because we’re getting better and better all the time, and I’m sure we’ll manage to keep the noise down eventually.
