The purpose of this paper is to explore the notions of teachers' professionalism and professional development by investigating the views of in-service primary teachers in Greece. An empirical study was carried out at the In-Service Teachers' Training School of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Patras, Greece. Our research data were collected by using anonymously filled in questionnaires. The results revealed that the teachers of our sample were acquainted with the issues of professionalism and sought to enhance their professional development. They also stressed the importance to be offered more opportunities for lifelong learning education. This study expands our understanding of the factors which affect teachers' professionalism and professional development.

The prevalence of 14 selected modifiable coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors was determined in randomly selected adolescent boys (n = 117) and girls (n = 93) from provisional Greece. Based on published criteria thresholds for CHD, 45% of boys and 50% of girls exhibited three or more risk factors with time spent on "vigorous" activities, low cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness being among the most frequent in both sexes. Stronger associations were found between cardiorespiratory fitness and time spent on "vigorous" rather than "moderate-to-vigorous" activities in both boys and girls. Regression analysis indicated that energy expenditure (P < .01) in boys and energy expenditure (P < .05) and energy intake (P < .01) in girls could alone explain about 60% of the body-fat related findings in either group. In conclusion, broadly based primary prevention strategies-aimed at children-should concentrate on reducing the overall energy intake and increasing the time spent on "vigorous" activities if future Greek adult CHD mortality is to be reduced.

In this study, pre-primary teachers' views about professionalism and professional development in state nursery schools in Greece were investigated using a survey. This investigation of teachers' responses regarding specific issues of professionalism and professional development revealed that the majority of the teachers in the sample valued the importance of their collaboration with colleagues in schools as well as their concern for pupils' achievement. The findings demonstrated the coherence between teachers' professionalism and professional development and provide a useful approach to contextualizing these notions through the lens of transformative learning.

This paper, which is of comparative interest in professionalism and professional development, reports on Greek primary school teachers’ views on specific aspects of the aforementioned issues. A total of 234 participants provided survey data, using anonymously filled-in questionnaires during the school year 2011–2012. More specifically, by examining teachers’ responses to five parameters of each case, we found out that, regarding professionalism, most teachers tended to score highly the importance of collaboration with their colleagues, parents and students, as well as their pedagogical concern for the students and their achievement. Regarding professional development, the demand for lifelong education and training, and for studying specific educational topics, was underlined. The teachers of our sample highlighted the great contribution of professionalism and professional development in their school routine. Moreover, they were aware of the complexities of professionalism and professional development and they closely related them with their personal development and the quality of their work at school. This survey confirmed that teachers’ professionalism and professional development is a universal phenomenon.