LEARNING ABOUT WORK IN THE CLASSICAL ERA OF GREECE: MODERN DAY CONNECTIONS

A group of faculty from the Hellenic American Educational Foundation, Psychico College in Athens, Greece made a presentation at the EDULEARN12 conference in Barcelona, Spain to describe their approach to teaching about the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire (1821-1827) through arts and new technologies (Panagouli, Rekoumi, Glimidakis, & Papadimitriou, 2012). As a participant in the EDULEARN12 conference, I was intrigued by the work this group had done and how it might be adapted to my own areas of research and instruction. My research agenda during the past two decades at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia) in the US has focused on work ethic and work attitudes. I have researched and published extensively about this topic and following the EDULEARN12 conference was interviewed by one of the American Public Media radio programs about the history of work ethic (http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/where-did-american-work-ethic-come). Most of my previous work has been based on secondary sources but the combination of these events prompted me to contact Dimitra Panagouli and Georgios Papadimitriou to inquire about the applicability of their approach to study of attitudes toward work during the Classical Era of Greece.

The resulting Athens, Georgia to Athens, Greece connection has been very helpful and productive. Panagouli and Papadimitriou not only considered application of their approach to investigating history appropriate for study of the Classical Era I was interested in, but they began providing references and resource materials for my review. Subsequently I had opportunity to visit their school in Athens, Greece two times over the past year and have begun to develop instructional materials for use in my university classes based on their guidance and assistance.

One of the key elements that has made this collaboration so productive is our common belief in the Teaching for Understanding (TfU) approach that they have adopted in their instructional programs. This model , leveraged with online Web-based resources, provides learning opportunities that can generate deep levels of understanding on the part of students.

The presentation proposed for EDULEARN13 will provide a brief description of how connections were made between faculty members located in Athens, Georgia and Athens, Greece; how learning activities were developed for use in a fall semester course for first-year university students based on study of paintings, sculpture, and original source documents to understand Classical Era Greek attitudes about work; and how new learning activities are now being developed for use in a university course being taught during the summer of 2013. Specific examples will be provided and descriptions of future collaborative work will be presented.