MODULES USED: C1, C2

Modules used: C1, C2 – Science Event 2012

This is a standardized version of the original case analysis number 4. Specific names and locations have been substituted from the original document number 4 with generic references in order to preserve the anonymity of every participant. In case you would like to read the original document, please contact occ@upf.edu.

Abstract

This research was commissioned by a European project named Platform of Local Authorities and Communicators Engaged in Science (PLACES, REFERENCE 5) as part of the measurement of the impact of initiatives and policies within the area of science communication and scientific culture in general. In this particular case, this research aims to determine the level of impact under the sustainable development topic through an event held into a primary school in the capital of this country.

This review summarizes and highlights the possibility of the learning opportunities of the students, the possible networking between various stakeholders, the enhancement of teachers’ career as well as the quality of teaching, and finally the possible encouragement of getting more youth interested into science.

The results suggest that the event as a successful undertaking ensured the students’ quality of life, as well as providing them with skills for sustainable development. Also, the results argue that there was an excellent collaboration between all the internal and external stakeholders, and teachers felt proud about their contribution to that. Finally, the event explored and enhanced students’ knowledge improving their sense of responsibility with regards to environmental problems.

Introduction

As a part of the European project under the name PLACES (Platform of Local Authorities and Communicators Engaged in Science), whose main goal is to offer (to a wide and diverse community of actors) a common platform in order to structure their science communication activities, at a city/regional level, the following report summarizes and highlights the impact assessment of this country’s case with regards to offering knowledge in the field of Cities of Scientific Culture.

Specifically, the results of all the case studies will serve to assist in the development of future guides and recommendations for the European Commission and those responsible for carrying out initiatives in the field of communication and scientific culture. Case studies, including this country’s case, aim to lay the foundations for the study of the social impact of science communication initiatives and policies at the local/regional level.

With regards to the three dimensions (impact on public, impact on the political sphere, impact on the actors) and the three levels (science centers and museums, science events, science cities) this report focuses on the impact on actors under a science event. In particular, as it was mentioned in the national overview on scientific culture in this country’s case, the promotion of scientific culture is done through the knowledge on a sustainable development and environmental awareness which is based mainly on the national public educational system (reference 9). More to the point, in order to reveal those impacts on the actors under the sustainable development topic, in the specific case a school with its teachers and students was chosen and the following research aims were introduced:

  • To reveal the enhanced learning opportunities for students
  • To identify a possible networking between actors of different categories
  • To present teachers with career enhancement and quality teaching opportunities
  • To examine the possibility of the encouragement of young people into science

In order to reveal those research aims within the boundaries of a chosen school, a science event taking place in a period of time was selected. The specific science event was a team effort work on reforming the natural environment of the school and it was launched during the beginning of the spring season and lasted for three months. The event was surprisingly initiated from the students of the school in conjunction with the curriculum on environmental education and education for sustainable development, as it was introduced by the ministry of education and culture of this country. The main goal of the curriculum aims at increasing students’ environmental literacy, as well as sensitizing students to environmental issues and being environmentally conscious, having a vision, skills and values towards the environment (MOEC, 2010). Specifically, after a reading in their classroom with regards to the environment, the students wanted to adopt a small piece of land of the school in order to enhance the environmental beauty of their school as well as to experience an environmental awareness including recycling programs.

This initiative came as a result of the students of the school with the support of their teacher as well as the principal of the school. Specifically, the students with their teacher’s support wrote a letter to their school principal, asking to adopt a small piece of land of their school in order to enhance it with flowers. This amazing opportunity gave the idea to the principal of an annual event during spring time of adopting a small piece of land in order to reform the natural environment of the school.

Moreover, the target audience unquestionably involves all the students of the school by stressing the need that “developing strong affiliations and knowledge as well as interest on environmental issues”, is a crucial necessity in our today’s society. In addition to the above, the specific event was supported by external factors that celebrated and supported the initiative including parents as well as the local community of the school.

Finally, we have to stress that this particular case is very desirable and worthy to deal with because (as was mentioned previous to our national overview on scientific culture), the place of science in society in this country context can be realized mainly through the public education system (reference 9). The national education system is the driving force on promoting scientific culture and in particular through knowledge on sustainable development, as one of the priorities established here in this country (reference 9). Also, according to the European Science Events Association (reference 7) a science event encompasses a whole group of diverse activities including science weeks, science festival or science days, matching with the selected case study.

Furthermore, one of the most widely recognized objectives of a science communication event is to raise public awareness of science, as well as to encourage young people into science (reference 7). Having that in mind, the above basic concept with regards to a science event, the following case study reveals some of these aspects. Finally, we have to add that our focus on the environmental issues regarding science and technology in Europe also emerges from a recent Euro barometer report from the European Commission (reference 6) which revealed that 88% of the respondents at the EU27 level are interested in environmental problems.

Methods

In order to present the results on this country’s case in alignment to the instructions given by the PLACES toolkit, the case study methodology was chosen. In particular, all the researchers across Europe were required to carry out a series of case studies in order to present guides and recommendations in the field of communication and scientific culture. According to Creswell (reference 4), a case study research methodology is a qualitative approach in which the investigator explores a bounded system (case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information (for example, observations, interviews, audiovisual material, and documents and reports), and reports a case description and case-based themes. The great strength of the case study method is that it allows the researchers to concentrate on a specific instance or situation and to identify, or attempt to identify, the various interactive processes at work (reference 1).

Having that in mind, combined with the directions given by the PLACES toolkit, a school and its science event was selected. Furthermore, as we decided upon the schema and in particular at the impact on the actors involved in the science communications initiatives and policy, teachers were the most appropriate selection as our sample. Apart from that, the research team felt the need to involve students in the sample. However, because of strong regulations and protection of the privacy of the students, a written permission was needed from the Ministry of Education and Culture of this country, a process that required time and a lot of effort.

In any case, the empirical data were generated through interviews, as they were introduced as the specific research tool from the PLACES toolkit, in an effort to provide answers to our focused research aims. According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (reference 3), interviews are categorized as one of the most effective and frequently used methods in qualitative research. Moreover, Bogdan and Biklen (reference 2) stated that interviews are a good source of information for a case study where the researchers’ intent is to solicit the perspective of an individual.

Thus, following the list of study modules or instruments in accordance with the PLACES instructions the ‘Module C1: Semi- structured interview’ was selected in order to analyze the impact on actors, and in the specific case, the teachers of the selected school. The specific study module was considered to be most appropriate because of the focus of the establishment of sustainable development within a school context in the country. In particular, we selected the semi-structured interview involving schools. The interview plan, as was presented in the PLACES toolkit, was divided in two parts. On the one hand, the questions referred to the interviewee’s involvement in the case. The interviewee would have the opportunity to describe the involvement in the case under investigation from his/her own perspective and describing how he/she became involved and how and in which role he/she was involved. On the other hand, the questions of the second part, focuses on possible impacts with regards to the enhancing of learning opportunities for students, competitiveness, networking between actors, positive feedback and motivation and career enhancement.

In addition to the above, ‘Module C2: focus groups with relevant actors’ was utilized in an effort to provide teachers’ different views on the same subject, providing the ability to each participant to talk about impacts on himself/herself in a group format. However, a modest presentation of the results will be presented below due to the fact that as it was mentioned in the toolkit on page 74: “for the purpose of identifying impacts on actors it may thus be preferable to use module C1 (individual interviews) rather than module C2 (focus groups).” More specifically, Module C2 is a collective semi-directive interview measuring the impact that has been caused on the actors represented in the focus group, because of their participation in the event.

The next step was the translation of the interview module into the national language, in order to adjust the interview plan procedure into context of the country. Specifically, in the case of the translation procedure, the assistance of an external researcher was requested in order to identify and prevent potential errors that could affect the interview plan and subsequently the interpretation of the results. At this stage, it is worth mentioning that the translated interview module is available in the annex of this report.

After that, we contacted the school’s principal in order to be present during the event concerning the celebration of the environment of the school. The chosen school is located in the south east of capital of the country and consists of two floors. In general, the school is quite clean and well kept, especially after the recent building upgrades and expansions. During the event day, we had the privilege to spend some time with the students and the teachers talking about the event. In the meantime the preparation of the environmental recreation of the school begun with the students planting some flowers, with the assistance of a specialized person with regards the gardening. Specifically, the students begun to recreate the space they adopted, remaining extremely enthusiastic. During that day, we had the opportunity to observe students learning about the environment and proposed ways of helping the sustainable development. After the end of the event, we renewed our appointment for the next visit in order to conduct the interviews with the teachers.

The following meeting was scheduled after several weeks and once again took place in the school, having the opportunity to talk and interview five of the teachers who took part in the specific event. The teachers responded enthusiastically and during the whole interview the anonymity of individuals was guaranteed as an important element of the whole procedure. A face to face interview was conducted, allowing the interviewee to answer each question extensively. Throughout the whole process we encouraged the teachers to talk openly about their perceptions and beliefs with regards to the subject. During the interview process, we made sure that our conversation remained focused on the topics of the interview guideline in order to represent the best possible results. Throughout the interview a digital recorder was used in order to record it. The teachers appeared positive with the use of it, expressing their views and opinions on the subject openly

Moreover, another meeting was scheduled in order to talk in a focus group with four of the teachers, giving the ability to the participants to talk about their response and the respective institution’s response to the participating case. Once again, a digital recorder was used and the teachers appeared positive with the use of it. In general and in accordance with the PLACES toolkit we could add that the main goal of the interviews (as well as the focus group discussion) was to measure the impact that participating in the event has caused on the actors themselves, and in this particular case, the teachers of the school.

The following step was with regards the data processing and particularly, with the transcriptions of the interviews. The transcriptions were made using the software programme “Sound Scriber”. The analysis of the interviews was based on the transcripts as they were extracted from the audio recordings. Specifically, through content analysis, the qualitative data extracted from the interviews were sorted into appropriate categories according to the specific research aims. In particular, the written transcripts of the interviews were read and each of the statements made by the interviewees was analyzed to an arising theme which was based to the research aims that we mentioned earlier in the introduction section. We also included a verbal description of the impacts on the relevant actors in order to increase the readers’ perception of the results as well as to present a more vivid presentation of the outcomes.

Furthermore, the transcriptions of the audio recordings emerged from the focus group were analyzed in order to provides us with information about the participants’ involvement in the case. Finally, after the analysis of the data, conclusions and recommendations were drawn upon the emerging themes as part of the research report.

Results

This case study explored the effects on teachers and students through a science event on reforming the natural environment of a primary school in the capital of the country. The specific science event was a team effort work, involving the school principal as well as teachers and students of the school. In particular, students decided to adopt a small piece of land of the school and after cleaning the land, with the support of some external stakeholders (i.e., parents) they began to transform it by planting some flowers as well as placing some wooden boxes for the remains of their food in order to feed the visiting birds of their school.

Bearing in mind that this particular event was introduced by the students of the school, it provided the idea to the principal for the creation of an annual event during the spring time about the reforming of the natural environment of the school.

To begin with, we are presenting the teachers’ general view in this particular case, as it extracted from the first part of the interview plan, in order to get a flavor of the whole event process. As we mentioned before, this initiative with regards to the event was mainly initiated from the students of the school in conjunction with the curriculum on environmental education. Specifically, a teacher asserts the following:

We had prioritized the upgrading of our school’s premises to become greener, and the 3rd grade students have adopted a piece of land located directly behind our classroom, and the event for the reform of the natural environment of our school was created. The initiative for this event came mainly from the students after being stimulated from a text of their national language lesson titled ‘The world around us’. Also, this initiative was born as part of the educational objectives of the school.” (Teacher A)

In particular, concerning the language lesson, students were thrilled and very enthusiastic and felt the need to do something similar to their own school environment. The following quotation from a teacher, who took part in the event, is characteristic:

“Specifically, under the subject ‘Recycling and environmental awareness’, there was a text where the children adopted a piece of land in order to recreate the environment and based on that text our students got excited and felt the need to do something similar in their own school.” (Teacher C)

As from their point of view, the teachers’ involvement was decisive for the success of this event. Moreover, the cooperation between them, as well as with the support of the school principal was apparent. In particular with regards to their own involvement on the event one of the teachers stated the following:

“My own role in the whole event was coordinating and guiding the event as the effort on promoting students to act admirably”. (Teacher B)

Furthermore, another teacher who was involved in the event presented the following, focusing her attention to the capacities of the students for the success of the event.

Also, deep in my mind I had an advance plan of the whole event according to the capacities of our students as well as all the external and internal factors that might help us for the success of our effort.” (Teacher A)

At this point, we have to remind the reader that the main analysis in this report is based on the research aims, as they were previously mentioned in the introduction section of this report. In particular, through the research aims, four arising categories of results were introduced and are presented below. The specific four categories which allow us to gain knowledge on the subject are the following:

  • Enhancing learning opportunities for students
  • Networking between actors of different categories
  • The encouragement of young people into science
  • Teachers’ career enhancement and quality teaching

For the purpose of this paper, only findings related to the above-mentioned specific research aims have been reported. Also, we should stress the fact that the findings reported are mainly based on the analysis of the interview data. Following, we add a partial presentation of our focus group results in an attempt to represent the impact on the participants in this particular case. Finally, the results obtained from this piece of research are presented below.

Enhancing learning opportunities for students

The benefits and learning opportunities for the students of the school are quite numerous. In general, the school yard and the specific piece of land that they adopted have been recreated and beautified. Now, there was a piece of land (a garden), where the students could gather and study the types of flowers they planted, as well as to watch them grow.

Furthermore, an important element concerning the learning opportunities for students is with regards to their increased environmental awareness. Specifically, one of the teachers mentioned that students wanted to recycle different kinds of things like bottles or papers and the school principal decided to buy the specific recycling bins in order for the students to be familiarized with the existence of that kind of bins. The following quotation from the teacher is characteristic:

“Recycling as a part of the environmental awareness was introduced to the students. Through that direction, the school administration decided to buy the specific recycling bins for the event in order to recycle bottles and papers, fostering environmental awareness.” (Teacher D)

As we can see, the initial thought of the students led to a whole host of other multiplier effects. Apart from that, the specific event provided to all the students a different perspective from the ‘every day’ teaching. For example, a teacher mentioned that the environmental awareness was created not from the classroom as part of a text or a lesson. On the contrary, there was a field work on the premises of the school, as well as talk to people who were experts with regards to the flowers and the gardening in general. One of the teachers stated the following:

The difference with this specific activity and the whole event is that the students’ environmental awareness growth came from field work. We didn’t persuade them that they should do recycling or learn about the environment through texts. Also, talking with experts on this subject was very useful for our students.” (Teacher A)

In conjunction with the above, students engaged in a small piece of research concerning the whole procedure. Specifically, through stories and fairytales with regards to the environment they learned a lot of new information and knowledge. Also, for the case of the visiting birds, students wanted to build some birds feeders in order to place their food leftovers for the birds. In order to do that, they studied different kinds of ways to built a bird feeder, as well as the birds’ nutrition habits and specifically if the birds can eat the remaining of breads, as part of their nutrition. More specifically, teachers report the following:

“With my help, students visited some internet sites, as well as read some other stories and fairytales with regards to the environment. These kinds of different sources of information gave the chance of a different perspective of learning to all my students” (Teacher E)

“…for example, students wanted to place some birds’ feeders for the birds. They learned from the internet what the bird feeders look like and also they were informed about the birds’ nutrition habits.” (Teacher C)

In addition to the evidence indicating the difference from ‘every day’ teaching, provided by the creation of this event, also signs of the increased quality of teaching have been observed. Specifically, the quality of teaching improved significantly for the reason that students’ learning goes beyond the boundaries of the classroom, exploring by themselves and come in contact with several other stakeholders related to the purposes of their event. One of the teachers mentioned the following:

“The quality of teaching has been improved significantly. Students take their own actions with regards to the event, exploring new ways of learning such as the internet and talking with different experts on the subject of the environmental recreation of a land…”

(Teacher C)

Finally, three key elements that we have distinguished in relation of that kind of events, as they were pointed out by the teachers and provide knowledge beyond the classroom boarder are the following:

  • Students can develop the feeling of “belonging” into the school premises and into the school community in general
  • They better understood their own role and responsibility of the school’s life quality improvement
  • Students understood the benefits of the study of their everyday life in order to suggest and implement practices which can improve their choices regarding their quality of life

Networking between actors of different categories

Another distinguished result which emerged from the research aims was the involvement of different actors in the whole event process. Teachers responded that there was a significant interaction and collaboration between the preparation and the (eventual) implementation of the event on reforming a part of the natural environment of the school. Specifically, a teacher mentioned that most of the collaboration was new as extracted from the students of the school. In order to understand the above statement the following quotation is characteristic:

“We didn’t know the people that we collaborated with. On the contrary the collaboration was a result of our students. We begun to discuss with our students and one of them told us that his father was a florist and has a flower shop. So, basically we didn’t know them but we came in contact with them.” (Teacher D)

Furthermore, from the interview analysis the results revealed a strong collaboration with various externals stakeholders who supported and facilitated in their own way this event. Specifically, the local community was present and helped the school to keep and maintain the specific land that the students “adopted”, clean and ready for the flower planting. Also, the florist, who in this particular case (as was mentioned above was a student’s father), offered for free all the flowers for the planting as well as the support, during the day of the event, of an assistant from the flower shop who help the students to plant the flowers and talked to them about the variety of the flowers and ways of preserving them. Apart from that, they asked the support of a carpenter who was responsible for the construction of the bird feeders. The following quotations from the teachers of the school are characteristic:

As for the cleaning of the land, one person from the municipality visited the school with the necessary equipment and cleaned the specific piece of land.” (Teacher E)

“Another important partnership is the florist, who was one of our students’ parents. He owns a flower shop and offered to our school all the flowers for free. Also, it is worth mentioning that during the day of the event one employee of the flower shop came and assisted the children to plant the flowers.” (Teacher A)

Also, we had to make the birds’ feeders which we designed them with the help of the students, and gave the designs to our school carpenter who built them for us.” (Teacher C)

In addition to the above, teachers agreed that all the contacts and collaborations were very useful in various ways. Specifically, the data has revealed that these kinds of relationships and collaborations strengthen the bonds between school and other stakeholders such as the local community and parents. In addition, some of the teachers revealed that they gained a lot of knowledge and experiences on different matters beyond their teaching skills, like knowledge on the environment and taking care of the flowers. The following quotations justified the teachers’ view:

“These contacts of course were very useful. Just imagine how important it is for our school to have that sort of collaboration with the parents and the local community. The parents can learn and get involved into school matters as well as to learn the school culture and the students in general. Apart from that, our school can rely on the local community, and celebrates with us special moments like this event which of course made the school more beautiful, and as it is a visually accessible from the street, it benefits the local community too.” (Teacher D)

“Also, the fact that I, as a teacher I came into contact with a florist, gave me the opportunity to gain some knowledge on the floral care. This is an opportunity for me to use it in my personal life and at my house.” (Teacher B)

Lastly, this overwhelming acceptance on the collaboration between school and other stakeholders provided the impetus for further co-operation, beyond the specific event. According to a teacher, the co-operation gave the initiative for further collaboration with all the stakeholders in an annual event concerning the adoption and recreation of a small piece of land of the school.

“After this particular event, we decided that this collaboration will be repeated next year in another similar event involving all the students and their parents, as well as the local community, providing more opportunities for all.” (Teacher B)

Teachers’ career enhancement and quality teaching

In considering how teachers value these kinds of events with regards to their career enhancement they ascertain that these kinds of events enhance their professional collaboration with all the internal stakeholders and specifically with the principal of the school as well as all the other teachers.

In particular, there is an appreciation upon their image and status and feeling proud about their accomplishments. Moreover, they insist that this is a consequence of the excellent collaboration between the principal and themselves which has an impact to all the students of the school. In conjunction with the above, the positive climate with regards these initiatives provides an improvement of their career, feeling happy and willing to offer much more to the school. The following quotations are characteristic:

“These kinds of efforts are appreciated from everyone and especially form our school principal who supports us and gives us the opportunity to work more on our professional career. Also, with great joy and satisfaction you can see all of our students celebrating and enjoying their creation.”
(Teacher E)

“My colleagues reacted positively and there was no negative criticism or reaction, because we support each other. This gives me strength to carry on creating new things and being more creative in enchanting my career beyond the classroom.” (Teacher A)

Moreover, the results indicated that the quality of teaching is very important and the event maintained and enhanced this quality. Specifically, teachers mentioned that the event explored students’ knowledge and enhanced the feeling of responsibility and their democratic consciousness with regards to environmental problems. The following quotes are representative:

“Also, I have to say that the event explored students’ knowledge and learning giving new opportunities in learning outside the classroom. I think this is very important.” (Teacher B)

“The event enhances the feeling of responsibility and democratic citizenship for students inside and outside the classroom“. (Teacher C)

The encouragement of young people into science

Some important issues were raised by teachers about the possibilities of encouraging young people into science. For a start, a teacher stated that students have the opportunity to participate in activities with regards to the environment and the quality of life, proposing ways to contribute as well as to gain knowledge on the subject. More specifically she reports the following:

“The students undertake the initiative to propose ways and participate in activities that contribute to the reform of the natural and artificial environment of the school as well as to the quality of life in general.” (Teacher B)

Furthermore, another interesting result which concerns the encouragement of students into science is with regards to the quality of life as well as skills development. Specifically, the students and young people in general can have the ability to become better skilled at various themes concerning the environmental sustainability. This is what they said in this regard:

“Students can identify the elements of the school environment that can affect their quality of life and try to recreate it and make a change.” (Teacher E)

“They have the ability to acquire skills using new technologies, through discussion and communication, through critical thinking, and analyzing data and information, with a result to formulate solutions related to environmental sustainability.” (Teacher C)

Focus group results

Apart from the interviews procedure, the focus group method provided us with a lot of information and facts about teachers’ involvement in this particular case study. In addition, it revealed a number of potential positive effects on actors (which in our specific case upon teachers) as well as upon students of the school.

To begin with, the results revealed that teachers agreed on the improvement for an enhanced quality teaching with their students through all kinds of initiatives as well as learning new ‘habits’ of knowledge such as the internet.

“I have to add that through the exploration of the internet our students were familiarized with new methods of learning”. (Teacher E)

Yes, I agree with my colleague, our children beyond the common tool of their textbook were introduced with the internet and discovered a new world full of knowledge”.
(Teacher B)

Secondly, three of the teachers who participated in our focus group procedure stressed out the fact that the coordination, guidance and implementation of the whole process gave them a lot of power and desire to be involved with such events and especially on events which promote students’ environmental awareness and new ways of learning in various situations with regards to the environmental issues and sustainable progress.

Furthermore, creativeness with regards to the teaching profession was another distinguished revelation on which the teachers agreed upon. This kind of events and in particular the specific one, gave them the ability to reboot their career with new learning methods towards their students beyond their classroom walls.

“The event was truly an amazing experience which helped me to vision new ways of learning to my students”. (Teacher B)

“Yes, I mean not only with textbooks and in the classroom…Now students can learn through internet or through lively contribution like this particular event” (Teacher A)

“I agree, internet as well as active participation provides new ways of teaching and by extension, new ways of learning to our students”. (Teacher D)

In other words, the focus group method raised some new potential areas on actors of this particular case, meaning the teachers as well as the students. In particular, the focus group revealed that the teachers had gained new ways on their career enhancement, a positive networking between actors of different categories, as well as positive feedback from their principals, and in addition to the motivation for new and creative ideas fostering their students’ knowledge.

Apart from that, teachers did mention the positive effects of these kinds of events onto students’ awareness, enhancing new learning opportunities beyond the traditional way of teaching into the classroom and into a more vivid environment throughout the events. In this particular case, an event on reforming the natural environment of the school had a direct result on the improvement of the environmental awareness and sustainable development.

Conclusions

In summary, the evidence is significant and indicates that these kinds of events do have powerful impacts upon students and educators in general. Based on this research results, there is strong evidence that this particular event is directly related with behaviors which ensure and improve the quality of the students’ life and the population in school, contributing to sustainable development of the school and the local community, and focusing on important issues with regards to the environment.

In particular, all the students initiated thoughts in what ways they can promote solutions to environmental problems within the piece of land they adopted, in collaboration with their teachers, their parents, as well as the local community. Through these solutions, the students contributed to the reform of the natural environment of the artificial-social context of their school by converting it into a beautiful and creative space in which they value-added some environmental solutions like the recycled bins as well as their leftovers food for the birds.

Moreover, the results appear to indicate the strong perception of students into a specified topic and in this particular case the event for the recreation of a small piece of land of their school. Students had the opportunity to realize that this event would lead to a success with a proper study design and implementation of specific practices of both themselves as well as with the help of their principal and teachers, and other external stakeholders such as their parents and the local community. What’s more on that, all students realized that this event was an important factor of improving their quality of life, while it is everyone’s responsibility, individually and collectively.

Furthermore, it is likely that the event as a successful project played a vital role in the skill development sector of the students. Specifically, all the students developed skills of effective communication and cooperation with the entire internal and external team of stakeholders of the school organization, utilizing them to this particular event, and as part of the implementation of the environmental policy of the school. Apart from that, the teachers of the school felt proud about their contribution providing excellence to their quality of teaching.

Finally, this study revealed that the school together with the local community, as well as the parents develops students’ environmental mentality. This result can be comparable to a previous piece of research in this country (reference 10) where the local community with the strong collaboration with school organizations can develop students’ environmental literacy and identity.

Recommendations

Two important recommendations can emerge from the results of this particular research, giving the stimulation to the European Union as well as the politicians to adjust these recommendations both at a European level and in their local contexts.

First of all, we strongly believe that Educational policy across European Union members has to promote this kind of experiential and exploratory learning, where students and teachers will be involved in activities and events beyond the traditional teaching approaches in the classroom, fostering active participation, interaction and inclusiveness with regards to environmental issues and sustainable development as part of the science communication and scientific culture in general.

Secondly, school organizations across Europe must implement an integrated and interdisciplinary approach on environmental issues and issues relating to sustainable development, which encompasses the whole curriculum in a “gestalt” approach.

Finally, the interview module instrument, as it was provided by the PLACES toolkit, has proven to be a convenient and efficient means of assessing the measurement of the impact of initiatives and policies within the area of science communication and scientific culture and was well received by all participants. The questions were of a general nature, and as a research team we do not feel that something has to change in order to be adapted to the local context.

As a final word, we believe that the translated module into the national language is reliable to be used more widely in other similar research programs and it is therefore strongly recommended.

References

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