Ilia Papadaki
Department, Institution: Department of Psychological Sciences, UEL
UBEL Pathway: Psychology
Supervisor: Professor Sam Wass and Dr Emma Howarth
About Me:
While I’m originally from Greece, I moved to the UK in 2018 to begin my MSc in Developmental Sciences. I am a Qualified Teacher and have over 6 years experience in education settings, both mainstream and special needs (particularly Autism).
What truly sets my heart on fire is my extensive experience working with children from challenging backgrounds. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with young minds who have faced unique hurdles on their life journey or come from neurodiverse backgrounds. This experience has deepened my commitment to providing alternative provisions and innovative learning pathways, ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, has access to quality education. My explorations have led me to the enchanting world of forest schools and the holistic philosophies of Montessori and Waldorf education. As a fervent advocate for the great outdoors, my mission is to bridge the gap between neuroscience, education and our innate connection to nature.
Outside academia, I like to spend time outdoors, do gymnastics, yoga, aerial silks, sail, travel and spend quality time with my dog Choco.
My Research:
My research project will explore the use of local outdoor space as a mechanism for improving the experiences and outcomes (learning and mental health) for children attending Pupil Referral Units situated in Newham, East London. It will build on an existing knowledge exchange partnership with Newham Learning, a collaboration of 40 schools, and also innovative methods developed at University of East London to explore parent-child co-regulation and the impact of outdoor learning on KS1 children. More recently attention has turned to consider the impact of outdoor environment on educational outcomes, finding benefits across attendance, attainment and pupil wellbeing. However, most of the evidence accumulated to date relates to mainstream educational settings, with fewer studies exploring the use of natural learning environments for children attending PRUs and other types of Alternative Provisions. This project will also explore how natural learning environments impact on physiological markers of stress which may mediate the relationship with psychological and learning outcomes.
Impact of My Research:
The outputs of this project will 1) immediately inform policy debate with respect to provision of quality education in the context of Alternative Provisions 2) inform local authority strategy on effective ways to work with excluded young people; 3) inform Newham Learning decisions on how to target the use of outdoor learning in the context of its PRU, and when not to use 4) inform debates on enhancing the methodological quality of outdoor learning studies through a focus on mechanisms and measurement of physiological markers of stress. University of East London will resource a multi-disciplinary conference to drive debate on how best to design and deploy outside space in educational settings. Newham’s Learning community of practice groups will be engaged from the outset of the project, in order to disseminate, implement and build upon study findings. Finally, UEL and NL will jointly host a meeting of PRUs interested in or already using outdoor spaces to enhance pupil outcomes. One of the aims of the meeting will be to co-design a larger scale, multi-site evaluation of outdoor learning in UK PRUs.
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