Foteini Papadimitriou | Aristotele University of Thessaloniki (original) (raw)
Papers by Foteini Papadimitriou
This paper highlights the role of the integration of moving images, among which the film holds a ... more This paper highlights the role of the integration of moving images, among which the film holds a predominant position, in the development of students‟ literacy skills. Twenty-one sixth-grade students who attend a state primary school in the city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece participated in the study. The materials used in the study consisted of a semi-structured interview, film trailers, film guides, “The Muppets” film as well as texts and images produced by students during the teaching intervention conducted in the language classroom. The data analysis shows that, in spite of the unfamiliarity of students with visual literacy practices in the classroom, as revealed through the pre-test phase, de-symbolization and interpretation skills of kineikonic information were successfully developed along with transcoding skills from one semiotic mode to another.
The aim of the present study is to examine the ways through which potential teachers search for a... more The aim of the present study is to examine the ways through which potential teachers search for and evaluate Web information resources, in order to design alternative teaching activities for the cultivation of linguistic literacy to primary education students, as part of their non-formal practice in visual/multimodal literacy. The research, in which 85 fourth year students of the Department of Primary Education at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki participated, was conducted in two phases, the pilot phase and the main phase. During the main phase, the students were engaged in activities concerning the presentation and discussions about credibility issues of information resources in general, and the application of specific evaluation criteria of their content and usefulness, in order to initiate a critical dialogue with the Web. Data collection was accomplished through structured non participant observation of Web information resources searching, selecting and evaluating pract...
Preschool and Primary Education, Mar 2, 2017
In the expanding context of new literacies, the abilities to know how to locate and evaluate web ... more In the expanding context of new literacies, the abilities to know how to locate and evaluate web information resources so as to construct knowledge are acknowledged as extremely important worldwide. Current literacy curricula should encourage the development of such abilities, and their successful implementation requires that teachers themselves are properly prepared. The present study reports the web searching and evaluating practices for educational purposes employed by both pre-service and in-service teachers. Data were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire. The descriptive study exhibits teachers' web reading practices with the purpose of identifying aspects that require attention when designing and implementing relevant educational initiatives. According to the findings of this research, both pre-service and in-service teachers almost exclusively use popular search engines to locate web information resources, and they choose such resources without examining their wider context. To evaluate web information resources, they consider mainly morphological and design elements, rather than content features such as their origin and credibility. The findings raise the potential of applying critical literacy principles on the Web so that teachers can approach it critiquely .i when using its resources in educational settings.
The International Journal of Literacies, 2017
This article examines the design and implementation of a teaching intervention that explores how ... more This article examines the design and implementation of a teaching intervention that explores how web information resources can be utilized as teaching material in the context of Greek language instruction. Its objectives are twofold. The first objective is to investigate how teachers utilize web resources as lesson material in the classroom while teaching language. The second objective is to delve into the ways in which students interpret and communicate the content of these resources through the production of new constructions and representations of reality by acting as critical thinkers and interacting with various systems of meanings. Twenty-two sixth-grade students who attended a state primary school in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece participated in this study. The materials used consisted of web resources in relation to the topic “employment,” as well as texts produced by the students at the end of the teaching intervention. The web resources were selected according to their a) objectivity, b) author or creator, c) purpose and the ways they involve students in the learning process, d) content, e) current events, and f) suitability for the students’ age. Working in groups, the students were called to study the material they were given and produced various genres of text in order to produce a newspaper. The discussions during the intervention and the final texts provided evidence that students reached a degree of competence that enabled them to exhibit critical-thinking skills toward web information resources. These findings highlight the need for designing and implementing critical web literacy teaching scenarios, so that both teachers and students are able to judge web information resources.
The International Journal of Literacies, 2015
Information literacy (IL) , which can be defined as the ability to identify an information need a... more Information literacy (IL) , which can be defined as the ability to identify an information need and to be able to locate, evaluate and effectively use information to meet this need, has been recognized as a critical component of 21st century education. Although IL skills are essential for all students, they are even more important for teacher education students. Teachers cannot facilitate their students to understand and fully exploit information sources for their own learning outcomes, unless they are information literate themselves. However, IL classes for undergraduate education students have not begun to appear in significant numbers in Greece, even though lack of information literacy skills and knowledge has been reported both formally and informally. The Department of Primary Education of the Faculty of Education (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) aimed to fill this gap by integrating into its curriculum a compulsory project-based IL course for all first year students, since academic year 2010-11. The course was designed in view of both the relevant literature and the reality of Greek universities. The paper attempts to place the course into its academic context. It then presents the content of the course, and how it was designed and implemented. It discusses students’ anonymous written feedback and tutor’s field notes and observations, which reveal course’s pitfalls and strengths according to its objectives and methods. It finally includes suggestions for future improvements and more general recommendations concerning the integration of IL into teacher education settings.
The International Journal of Literacies , 2015
The ability to interpret and communicate multimodal meanings necessitates a satisfactory amount o... more The ability to interpret and communicate multimodal meanings necessitates a satisfactory amount of visual literacy and critical thinking skills which are completely ignored by the current educational systems. In this light, we try through the present paper, to implement a multimodal critical approach to teaching literacy to primary education students, using the social semiotic account of meaning-making developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996/2006), so as to comprehend how they can utilize various semiotic resources in order to construct representations of the reality which highlight or suppress certain ways of viewing the world. Data analysis provides evidence that the adoption and incorporation of the metalanguage of ‘visual grammar’ in educational practice result in making students both critical thinkers and visually/multimodally literate individuals, since they are able to analyze meanings established by the intermodal synergies between the verbal and visual elements. Furthermore, they reach a degree of competence which enables them to compose and communicate intermodal meanings allowing multiple ‘readings’ by their readers/viewers. Although these findings support the pedagogic exploitation of such emerging ‘grammars’, further investigation is needed in the domain of multimodal representation of ‘discourse’ within the framework of the pedagogy of Multiliteracies.
The International Journal of Literacies, 2015
In the present study we attempt, through the design and implementation of a teaching intervention... more In the present study we attempt, through the design and implementation of a teaching intervention, to investigate the ways in which the acquisition of an image-text relations metalanguage may contribute to the development of critical multimodal literacy skills to primary education students for the negotiation and construction of intermodal resources of meaning aiming at questioning and transforming their ideological and cultural content. The materials used in the study consisted of picture books, comic books, as well as the comics produced by students during the teaching intervention. The qualitative analysis of the students' comics shows that students have become aware both of the ways in which the various semiotic modes are interlinked to construct meanings which highlight or suppress particular aspects of the social world and of the ways in which intra- and inter-semiotic complementarity is manifested. This entails the development of a metalanguage that facilitates the meta-textual awareness of the image/text relations. These findings highlight the need for reframing the monomodal character of communication, as this is realized through the suggestions of the curriculum for the teaching of literacy, a fact which necessitates the renegotiation of considerations related to meaning-making processes in the light of the multimodal literacy pedagogy.
Learning and Instruction, 2001
Current educational systems primarily focus on the verbal and logico-mathematical aptitude of stu... more Current educational systems primarily focus on the verbal and logico-mathematical aptitude of students, thus neglecting the cultivation of visual literacy and critical literacy skills, although the ubiquity of images in school textbooks necessitates the inclusion of a 'visual grammar' metalanguage in educational practices. The aim of the present paper is to present a teaching intervention for the teaching of literacy in English through the implementation of critical multimodal literacy principles in order to bridge the gap between schooled literacy and out-of-school literacies. The participants in the intervention are eighteen sixth grade students of an EFL classroom in a state primary school in Thessaloniki who managed to 'deconstruct' the depiction of superheroes/heroines in comic books or action movies, in an effort to represent them in a more humane and mundane way, where their superpowers are summoned to the advantage of a society in need. The overall organization of the instructional intervention is built on an introductory phase, a main phase and a follow-up phase. The analysis of the students' compositions relies on the application of the principles of critical visual literacy and the results display that, through the process of scaffolding, the students can reject dominant representations of power and reconstruct cliché identities by re-exploring pre-existing roles. The end result, that is the classroom calendar compiled by twelve multimodal texts, manifests the students' skilful utilization of both visual and verbal semiotic resources in a balanced way, with a view to transmitting their social messages taking into account the broader social, cultural and political context within which power relations and social roles constantly evolve and are constructed.
Vol. 3, No. 2 (2015) by Foteini Papadimitriou
Given that little research has been conducted to date in the classroom about the exploitation of ... more Given that little research has been conducted to date in the classroom about the exploitation of aspects of "visual grammar" for the teaching of literacy, the purpose of this study is to provide research data to support the adoption of a common image/text relations metalanguage in educational practice as an effective tool for critically negotiating, and mainly, for composing intermodal meanings. Forty-six sixth-grade students who attend a state primary school in the city of Ptolemaida, northern Greece participated in the study. The materials used in the study consisted of: (a) informational, print-based multimodal texts and, (b) compositions produced by students, at first individually and then in groups. The overall research is designed on a pre-test phase, an instructional intervention phase, and a post-test phase. The qualitative comparative analysis of student compositions manifests that the metalanguage of "visual design" constitutes a truly promising, pedagogically utilizable tool for the description, interpretation and comprehension of the interactions among the various semiotic modes co-existing in multimodal ensembles. This entails the development of multimodal and visual literacy skills by the primary education students. These findings highlight the need for adoption and incorporation of such a metalanguage for the design of curricula facilitating the teaching of literacy, in order to reframe the monomodal nature of communication.
This paper highlights the role of the integration of moving images, among which the film holds a ... more This paper highlights the role of the integration of moving images, among which the film holds a predominant position, in the development of students‟ literacy skills. Twenty-one sixth-grade students who attend a state primary school in the city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece participated in the study. The materials used in the study consisted of a semi-structured interview, film trailers, film guides, “The Muppets” film as well as texts and images produced by students during the teaching intervention conducted in the language classroom. The data analysis shows that, in spite of the unfamiliarity of students with visual literacy practices in the classroom, as revealed through the pre-test phase, de-symbolization and interpretation skills of kineikonic information were successfully developed along with transcoding skills from one semiotic mode to another.
The aim of the present study is to examine the ways through which potential teachers search for a... more The aim of the present study is to examine the ways through which potential teachers search for and evaluate Web information resources, in order to design alternative teaching activities for the cultivation of linguistic literacy to primary education students, as part of their non-formal practice in visual/multimodal literacy. The research, in which 85 fourth year students of the Department of Primary Education at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki participated, was conducted in two phases, the pilot phase and the main phase. During the main phase, the students were engaged in activities concerning the presentation and discussions about credibility issues of information resources in general, and the application of specific evaluation criteria of their content and usefulness, in order to initiate a critical dialogue with the Web. Data collection was accomplished through structured non participant observation of Web information resources searching, selecting and evaluating pract...
Preschool and Primary Education, Mar 2, 2017
In the expanding context of new literacies, the abilities to know how to locate and evaluate web ... more In the expanding context of new literacies, the abilities to know how to locate and evaluate web information resources so as to construct knowledge are acknowledged as extremely important worldwide. Current literacy curricula should encourage the development of such abilities, and their successful implementation requires that teachers themselves are properly prepared. The present study reports the web searching and evaluating practices for educational purposes employed by both pre-service and in-service teachers. Data were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire. The descriptive study exhibits teachers' web reading practices with the purpose of identifying aspects that require attention when designing and implementing relevant educational initiatives. According to the findings of this research, both pre-service and in-service teachers almost exclusively use popular search engines to locate web information resources, and they choose such resources without examining their wider context. To evaluate web information resources, they consider mainly morphological and design elements, rather than content features such as their origin and credibility. The findings raise the potential of applying critical literacy principles on the Web so that teachers can approach it critiquely .i when using its resources in educational settings.
The International Journal of Literacies, 2017
This article examines the design and implementation of a teaching intervention that explores how ... more This article examines the design and implementation of a teaching intervention that explores how web information resources can be utilized as teaching material in the context of Greek language instruction. Its objectives are twofold. The first objective is to investigate how teachers utilize web resources as lesson material in the classroom while teaching language. The second objective is to delve into the ways in which students interpret and communicate the content of these resources through the production of new constructions and representations of reality by acting as critical thinkers and interacting with various systems of meanings. Twenty-two sixth-grade students who attended a state primary school in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece participated in this study. The materials used consisted of web resources in relation to the topic “employment,” as well as texts produced by the students at the end of the teaching intervention. The web resources were selected according to their a) objectivity, b) author or creator, c) purpose and the ways they involve students in the learning process, d) content, e) current events, and f) suitability for the students’ age. Working in groups, the students were called to study the material they were given and produced various genres of text in order to produce a newspaper. The discussions during the intervention and the final texts provided evidence that students reached a degree of competence that enabled them to exhibit critical-thinking skills toward web information resources. These findings highlight the need for designing and implementing critical web literacy teaching scenarios, so that both teachers and students are able to judge web information resources.
The International Journal of Literacies, 2015
Information literacy (IL) , which can be defined as the ability to identify an information need a... more Information literacy (IL) , which can be defined as the ability to identify an information need and to be able to locate, evaluate and effectively use information to meet this need, has been recognized as a critical component of 21st century education. Although IL skills are essential for all students, they are even more important for teacher education students. Teachers cannot facilitate their students to understand and fully exploit information sources for their own learning outcomes, unless they are information literate themselves. However, IL classes for undergraduate education students have not begun to appear in significant numbers in Greece, even though lack of information literacy skills and knowledge has been reported both formally and informally. The Department of Primary Education of the Faculty of Education (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) aimed to fill this gap by integrating into its curriculum a compulsory project-based IL course for all first year students, since academic year 2010-11. The course was designed in view of both the relevant literature and the reality of Greek universities. The paper attempts to place the course into its academic context. It then presents the content of the course, and how it was designed and implemented. It discusses students’ anonymous written feedback and tutor’s field notes and observations, which reveal course’s pitfalls and strengths according to its objectives and methods. It finally includes suggestions for future improvements and more general recommendations concerning the integration of IL into teacher education settings.
The International Journal of Literacies , 2015
The ability to interpret and communicate multimodal meanings necessitates a satisfactory amount o... more The ability to interpret and communicate multimodal meanings necessitates a satisfactory amount of visual literacy and critical thinking skills which are completely ignored by the current educational systems. In this light, we try through the present paper, to implement a multimodal critical approach to teaching literacy to primary education students, using the social semiotic account of meaning-making developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996/2006), so as to comprehend how they can utilize various semiotic resources in order to construct representations of the reality which highlight or suppress certain ways of viewing the world. Data analysis provides evidence that the adoption and incorporation of the metalanguage of ‘visual grammar’ in educational practice result in making students both critical thinkers and visually/multimodally literate individuals, since they are able to analyze meanings established by the intermodal synergies between the verbal and visual elements. Furthermore, they reach a degree of competence which enables them to compose and communicate intermodal meanings allowing multiple ‘readings’ by their readers/viewers. Although these findings support the pedagogic exploitation of such emerging ‘grammars’, further investigation is needed in the domain of multimodal representation of ‘discourse’ within the framework of the pedagogy of Multiliteracies.
The International Journal of Literacies, 2015
In the present study we attempt, through the design and implementation of a teaching intervention... more In the present study we attempt, through the design and implementation of a teaching intervention, to investigate the ways in which the acquisition of an image-text relations metalanguage may contribute to the development of critical multimodal literacy skills to primary education students for the negotiation and construction of intermodal resources of meaning aiming at questioning and transforming their ideological and cultural content. The materials used in the study consisted of picture books, comic books, as well as the comics produced by students during the teaching intervention. The qualitative analysis of the students' comics shows that students have become aware both of the ways in which the various semiotic modes are interlinked to construct meanings which highlight or suppress particular aspects of the social world and of the ways in which intra- and inter-semiotic complementarity is manifested. This entails the development of a metalanguage that facilitates the meta-textual awareness of the image/text relations. These findings highlight the need for reframing the monomodal character of communication, as this is realized through the suggestions of the curriculum for the teaching of literacy, a fact which necessitates the renegotiation of considerations related to meaning-making processes in the light of the multimodal literacy pedagogy.
Learning and Instruction, 2001
Current educational systems primarily focus on the verbal and logico-mathematical aptitude of stu... more Current educational systems primarily focus on the verbal and logico-mathematical aptitude of students, thus neglecting the cultivation of visual literacy and critical literacy skills, although the ubiquity of images in school textbooks necessitates the inclusion of a 'visual grammar' metalanguage in educational practices. The aim of the present paper is to present a teaching intervention for the teaching of literacy in English through the implementation of critical multimodal literacy principles in order to bridge the gap between schooled literacy and out-of-school literacies. The participants in the intervention are eighteen sixth grade students of an EFL classroom in a state primary school in Thessaloniki who managed to 'deconstruct' the depiction of superheroes/heroines in comic books or action movies, in an effort to represent them in a more humane and mundane way, where their superpowers are summoned to the advantage of a society in need. The overall organization of the instructional intervention is built on an introductory phase, a main phase and a follow-up phase. The analysis of the students' compositions relies on the application of the principles of critical visual literacy and the results display that, through the process of scaffolding, the students can reject dominant representations of power and reconstruct cliché identities by re-exploring pre-existing roles. The end result, that is the classroom calendar compiled by twelve multimodal texts, manifests the students' skilful utilization of both visual and verbal semiotic resources in a balanced way, with a view to transmitting their social messages taking into account the broader social, cultural and political context within which power relations and social roles constantly evolve and are constructed.
Given that little research has been conducted to date in the classroom about the exploitation of ... more Given that little research has been conducted to date in the classroom about the exploitation of aspects of "visual grammar" for the teaching of literacy, the purpose of this study is to provide research data to support the adoption of a common image/text relations metalanguage in educational practice as an effective tool for critically negotiating, and mainly, for composing intermodal meanings. Forty-six sixth-grade students who attend a state primary school in the city of Ptolemaida, northern Greece participated in the study. The materials used in the study consisted of: (a) informational, print-based multimodal texts and, (b) compositions produced by students, at first individually and then in groups. The overall research is designed on a pre-test phase, an instructional intervention phase, and a post-test phase. The qualitative comparative analysis of student compositions manifests that the metalanguage of "visual design" constitutes a truly promising, pedagogically utilizable tool for the description, interpretation and comprehension of the interactions among the various semiotic modes co-existing in multimodal ensembles. This entails the development of multimodal and visual literacy skills by the primary education students. These findings highlight the need for adoption and incorporation of such a metalanguage for the design of curricula facilitating the teaching of literacy, in order to reframe the monomodal nature of communication.