Lower Secondary School Students’ Attitudes towards Home Economics and Cross Curricularity: The Effect of the Flexible Zone Program
Vardalou K. Eleni

Abstract
New curricula were introduced for the Greek compulsory education in the first decade of the 21stcenturythatwerebasedonthecross-thematic/curricular approach (named CTC- Cross Thematic Curricula). The effective application of the innovative and theoretically substantiated cross-thematic approach to teaching, learning and assessment is expected to maximize learning success. By investigating the attitudes of students towards the Home Economics lesson, it was expected to determine the degree of utilization of cross-curricularity, as well as the experiential and collaborative methodologies used in the Flexible Zone, in the classroom and whether teaching was designed and implemented based on the needs, desires, interests of students. To assess the attitudes of students a specially designed questionnaire with an inventory was used which contained Likert-type questions and which was distributed to a representative sample of students. The findings of high positive attitudes related to the Flexible Zone and all the relevant qualities of the cross curricular/thematic approach are of particular research interest both to educators in general and especially to teachers of Home Economics as well as to all interested in an education that reinforces positive pedagogy in schools.

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