Articles – Paideia

Three Mindfulness Stops in Europe: Romania 2024 – Finland 2025 – Slovenia 2025

Paideia — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:37:51 +0000

Erasmus KA122 Mobilities: ‘Building Mindfulness and Resilience Towards Sustainability’

In a world shaped by rapid change, digital overload, and increasing emotional demands on both students and teachers, the Erasmus KA1 project “Building Mindfulness and Resilience Towards Sustainability” set out to explore how European educational cultures cultivate presence, balance, and inner strength. Between 2024 and 2025, three distinct destinations — Romania, Finland, and Slovenia — became powerful mindfulness stops, each offering its own lessons on how educators can nurture sustainable well‑being in themselves and their school communities.

Romania 2024 — Mindfulness in the Land of Forests, Traditions, and Quiet Strength

The journey began in Romania, a country where nature, history, and cultural resilience coexist in a delicate, grounding harmony. Educators from Greece stepped into a landscape shaped by the Carpathian Mountains, vast forests, and villages where time slows down and presence becomes a natural state of being. Romania became a living classroom for exploring mindfulness as a practice of self‑awareness, emotional grounding, and sustainable living.

The country’s landscapes — from the serene hills of Transylvania to the quiet flow of the Danube — offered a powerful metaphor for inner balance. Romanian culture carries a deep respect for nature and tradition, reminding participants that resilience is often built through simplicity, connection, and continuity.

Forest paths encouraged educators to slow their pace, breathe deeply, and reconnect with the grounding rhythm of the natural world. Through breathing exercises, guided reflection, and silent observation, participants practiced stepping out of the “automatic pilot” that dominates modern life.

Romania also highlighted the importance of well‑being as a form of sustainability. In rural communities, people cultivate a mindful relationship with the land — taking only what is needed, valuing seasonal rhythms, and embracing a lifestyle that balances effort with rest. This approach mirrors the essence of mindful teaching: caring for one’s inner landscape in order to support others with clarity and compassion.

Finally, the exploration of character strengths became a central theme. Just as the Carpathian forests endure storms and seasons through deep roots and quiet resilience, individuals thrive when they recognize and cultivate their inner resources. This awareness is a cornerstone of mindful living and mindful education.

Finland 2025 — The Pedagogy of Calm and Sustainable Well‑Being

The second mobility took place in Finland, a country internationally admired for its educational philosophy rooted in trust, balance, and emotional well‑being. Here, mindfulness is not an isolated practice but a cultural rhythm woven into everyday life — a natural extension of Finland’s commitment to sustainable education.

Finnish classrooms embody a pedagogy of calm: unhurried lessons, gentle transitions, and learning environments that prioritize emotional safety. Silence is not an absence but a tool — a space where thinking can breathe. Teachers model presence through their tone, posture, and interactions, showing that learning flourishes when pressure is replaced by trust.

Nature plays a central role. Forest walks, lakeside reflections, and outdoor learning sessions offered educators a chance to experience outdoor mindfulness, reconnecting with the grounding power of the natural world. Practices such as emotion check‑ins, slow breathing routines, and mindful movement demonstrated how small rituals can transform the school day.

Finland revealed that mindfulness is not an “extra activity” but a way of being — a gentle, steady commitment to noticing, listening, and responding with intention. This approach aligns deeply with the Erasmus project’s goal of building resilience and sustainable well‑being in school communities.

Slovenia 2025 — Mindfulness as Community and Urban Sustainability

The final stop, Slovenia, added a new dimension: mindfulness as a collective experience. The Slovenian capital, known for its green philosophy, pedestrian‑friendly streets, and human‑centered design, offered a living example of how a country can cultivate presence, connection, and sustainable living.

Here, mindfulness expanded beyond the individual to include community, empathy, and cultural coexistence. Workshops focused on collaborative learning, restorative communication, and social awareness, showing how mindful practices can strengthen relationships and create inclusive school cultures.

Slovenia’s gentle urban rhythm — bicycles gliding along rivers, quiet public squares, and spaces designed for conversation — encouraged educators to slow down and observe how environments shape behaviour. The country became a reminder that mindfulness is not only about inner stillness but also about building communities where every voice feels heard and every person feels they belong.

A Journey That Continues

Across these three European stops, the Erasmus KA1 project “Building Mindfulness and Resilience Towards Sustainability” revealed mindfulness as a multifaceted practice:

presence in Romania,
balance in Finland,
connection in Slovenia.

Together, they formed a powerful trilogy of learning, reminding educators that teaching is not only the transmission of knowledge but also the cultivation of awareness, resilience, and humanity. In a world that moves fast, mindfulness invites us to pause, breathe, and rediscover what truly matters — in the classroom and beyond.

Flipped Classroom

Paideia — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 20:54:46 +0000

A growing number of studies show that flipped classroom- known as inverted classroom- improve student achievement in nearly any subject.

Flipped classes allow students to consume lecture materials at their own pace.

Unlike traditional lectures in which students follow instructor’s pace, students in flipped classrooms can rewind and replay the video as many times as needed in order to improve their understanding of difficult concepts.

Collaborative Action Research as the Means of Teachers’ Professional Development

Paideia — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 02:52:53 +0000

There has been an explosion of interest in educational action research as it’s regarded a means of professional development and professionalism. In Greece, the increasing importance of reflective rationality and action research are considered to be at an initial state due to several constraints. In this study, a collaborative action research model was planned and implemented in two school units of primary education. Τhe goal was to improve schools from within by employing teachers as active agents of change within their own organizations.

Conditions or requirements of a successful collaborative action research

The elements that yield a successful and effective staff development program do not exist in isolation; instead they are interrelated and interdependent.

a) Many researchers agree that teachers’ development program should be based on their needs, as teachers can’t be treated as a homogeneous group. It is acceptable that the staff is made up of a number of individuals with different skills, attitudes and previous experience (Fullan 1993), and additionally their aspirations vary at different stages of their career (Huberman 1998). The needs of the veteran teachers most probably differ from the needs of the relatively inexperienced ones. Therefore the professional growth activities are processes which integrally involve teachers not only in the assessment of their own needs, interests and concerns, but also in planning, development and implementation of changes (Owens, Loucks & Horsley 1991; Fullan 1993).

b) Participating in a staff development program means that you are willing to make some changes. We all know that change is complex and any real improvement is likely to be associated with some pain or conflict. New equipments and materials are introduced, behaviors and practices change, and new beliefs and attitudes may also be encouraged (Fullan 2001a). Simply changing the first two without changing the third has nothing to do with real improvement. Therefore, the type of plan that brings about improvement at these three levels should be well led and managed, have teacher development built in and most importantly focus on pupils’ progress and achievement (Fullan 1993). In other words, the collaborative process needs managing if it is to happen well and critically at the same time.

c) According to the literature, effective staff development takes place “on the job” in their own workplace where there are many high quality opportunities, such as easily available case study meetings, collaborative projects, peer observations, discussions, a critical friend, etc. (MacGilchrist et al. 2008).

d) Establishment of collegial intelligence plays an important role, in order to develop a shared sense of purpose and commitment that may lead to change and improvement. Collegiality refers to “the existence of a high level of collaboration among teachers and between teachers and principal and is characterized by mutual respect, shared work values, cooperation and specific conservations about teaching and learning” (Sergiovanni & Starratt 2002, p. 330).

e) Collegial intelligence relates closely to reflective intelligence (MacGilchrist et al. 2008). The teachers need to learn together and reflect together critically about what is happening. Reflection is associated with thinking and is judged to involve the cognitive processes of both problem finding and problem solving (Leitch & Day 2000).

f) As the collaborative culture is characterized by a spirit of ongoing support for experimentation and risk taking, the existence of an expert, a facilitator, or a critical friend could mobilize the educational community to consider the change (MacBeath 2005). The critical friend “is the trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens and offers critiques of a persons’ work as a friend” (Costa & Kallick 1993, 50). He/she is the person who supports teachers’ in their effort to improve and create a positive atmosphere conducive to the learning process.

g) Generally, concerning the atmosphere, a successful collaborative action research effort should take place in a non-threatening atmosphere where there is support and encouragement of the headmasters and a warm climate between the participants and the researchers (Wagner 1997; Sergiovanni & Starratt 2002).

Collaborative Action Research as the Means of Teachers’ Professional Development is presented in the course: EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS: A STEP AHEAD

A peer group mentoring model

Paideia — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 02:48:36 +0000

Mentoring is widely supported in many educational systems; In order to enhance teaching effectiveness and professional growth, ongoing guidance is provided by mentors in countries around the world, even to appointed teachers. The current literature review mentions a distinction between the bureaucratic-managerial and the participatory model and also between conventional and educational mentoring models. Additionally, the knowledge transmission and the knowledge transformation models are proposed by some researchers. The managerial, conventional and transformational models are based on the behaviorism, which perceives learning as an accumulation of knowledge provided by experts. The participatory, educational and knowledge transformation models are based on constructivism theory, according to which mentor leads mentees to discover new knowledge and theory based on their own previous knowledge.

By focusing on recent theories of teachers’ learning and mentoring and the research data of a case study, a peer group mentoring model (PGM) was created and implemented to a junior high school of Eastern Thessaloniki in Greece with six teachers as mentees and the researcher in the role of the mentor. The research took place from October 2016 to May 2017. The peer group mentoring model developed in our study combines the technocratic and participatory mentoring models, concentrating particularly on the principles of the constructivism, transforming mentees into active learners.

Participants were involved in the mentoring relationship through the development of effective strategies, such as peer observation, collaborative culture and reflective process under mentor’s guidance.

Focusing on the participants’ professional needs and on the actual teaching in classroom, a new perspective with a direct and specialized training within the workplace was provided. The mentor, an expert teacher coming from the same school unit, provided continuous feedback and support to mentees, by involving them in teaching, observation, feedback and reflection as a group; as a result, the participants adopted innovations, changed attitudes and developed new relationships.

The peer group mentoring model is presented in the course: Mentoring at schools: new relationships are established

Full article : http://www.aijcrnet.com/journal/index/1147

References

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Pennanen, M., Geeraerts, Κ., Tynjala, P. & Markkanen, I. (2014). The Finnish Peer-Group Mentoring Model. Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Retrieved from http://www.osaavaverme.fi/en/dissemination.