Dr Antonia Zachariou
Short Bio
Contact Details
Nicosia Campus: 21 Glafkou Clerides Avenue, 2107 Aglantzia Nicosia, Cyprus
Personal Website
Dr Antonia Zachariou
EXPERTISE
Antonia’s research focuses on the areas of self-regulation and metacognition. She also studies the role of the context, play, and musical play in children’s self-regulation, learning and broader development.
SHORT BIO
Dr Antonia Zachariou (F) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology (Educational and Developmental) at the University of Limassol. She studied for her PhD in Psychology and Education under the guidance of Dr David Whitebread, at the University of Cambridge. She also holds an MPhil in Psychology and Education from the University of Cambridge. Before returning to Cyprus, she was Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton, London. Antonia was also a Visiting Lecturer at New York University London where she lectured on Developmental Psychology and Human Development, and at the Royal College of Music. She has served for many years as an external examiner for top-tier universities in the UK. Before starting her tenure-track career, Antonia worked as a researcher at the University of Cambridge, where she also taught undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Antonia is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. She has been awarded twice an Early Career Scholar’s Fellowship by the European Association of Developmental Psychology. She is passionate about making a change in the lives of children and teachers. To this end, she has undertaken consultancy projects with schools and parents, and has contributed as a Member of a Working Group to Birth to Five Matters, guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage in England. She is also a co-founder and coordinator of the Play, Learning and Development Special Interest Group at the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI).
Selected Publications
Zachariou, A., & Bonneville-Roussy, A. (2024). The role of autonomy support from teachers in young learners’ self-regulation in dyadic contexts. Learning and Instruction, 89, 101843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2023.101843
Zachariou, A. (2024). Does Work Discussion work? What did the practitioners think about their Work Discussion group experience? In P. Elfer (Ed.), Talking with Feeling in the Early Years: Work Discussion as a model of supporting professional reflection and wellbeing (pp. 23-34). Routledge.
Zachariou, A., & Bonneville-Roussy, A., Hargreaves, D., Neokleous, R. (2023). The effects of a musical play intervention on young children’s self-regulation. Metacognition and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-023-09342-1
Robson S. & Zachariou, A. (2022). Self-regulation in the Early Years. SAGE Publications.
Zachariou, A., Whitebread, D. (2021). The relation between early self-regulation and classroom context: The role of adult’s presence, the task’s source of initiation and social context. British Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12476
Ellefson, M., Zachariou, A., Fei-Yin Ng, F., Wang, Q., & Hughes, C. (2020). Do executive functions mediate the link between socioeconomic status and numeracy Skills? A cross-site comparison of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 194, 104734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104734
Zachariou, A., & Whitebread, D. (2019). Developmental differences in young children’s self-regulation. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 62, 282-293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2019.02.002
Whitebread, D., Basilio, M., O’Sullivan, L., Zachariou, A. (2019). The importance of play, oral language and self-regulation in children’s development and learning; implications for quality in early childhood education. In D. Whitebread, V. Grau, K. Kumpulainen, M. McClelland, N. Perry, D. Pino-Pasternak (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Developmental Psychology and Early Childhood Education. Sage: London.
Zachariou, A. (2019). Young children’s thinking in music. In S. Robson (Ed.), Developing Thinking and Understanding in Young children, 3rd ed.
Elfer, P., Greenfield, S., Robson, S., Wilson, D., & Zachariou, A. (2018). Love, satisfaction and exhaustion in the nursery: methodological issues in evaluating the impact of Work Discussion groups in the nursery. Early Child Development and Care, 188(7), 892-904. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2018.1446431
Zachariou, A., & Whitebread, D. (2017). A new context affording for regulation: the case of musical play. International Journal of Educational Psychology, 6(3), 212-249. http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/ijep.2017.2959
Howe, C., & Zachariou, A. (2017). Small-group collaboration and individual knowledge acquisition: the processes of growth during adolescence and early adulthood. Learning and Instruction. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2017.10.007
Spektor-Levy, O., Basilio, M., Zachariou, A., & Whitebread, D. (2017). Young Children’s Spontaneous Manifestation of Self-Regulation and Metacognition During Constructional Play Tasks. Teachers College Record, 119(13), ID Number: 21931.
Zachariou, A., & Whitebread, D. (2015). Musical play and self-regulation: Does musical play allow for the emergence of self-regulatory behaviours? International Journal of Play, 4(2), 116-135. http://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2015.1060572
Publications for Teachers/ Practitioners
Robson S. & Zachariou, A. (2022). Self-regulation in the Early Years. SAGE Publications.
Robson, S., & Zachariou, A. (2022). Author spotlight: Sue Robson and Antonia Zachariou on self-regulation. Early Years Educator Magazine.
Zachariou, A. (2021). Musical play: a powerful tool for self-regulation. Headteacher update.
Zachariou, A., & Whitebread, D. (2019). Musical play, Self-regulation and child development. Towards a music pedagogy of early childhood: Theories and practices in education, 65-77.
Zachariou, A. (2016). Music and self-regulation in young children. Early Education Journal, 80, 15-19.
PROJECTS
Research
Nuffield Foundation research grant, Interventions supporting early self-regulation (PI), pending
Society for Research in Child Development & The National Science Foundation Travel Award (US) to support attendance at SRCD Learning through play and Imagination Conference, 2022
Froebel Trust funding awarded to the Early Childhood Research Centre, University of Roehampton to support the development work carried out on the Hub and Spoke Initiative proposal for a partnership with a group of 100+ Early Years settings (PI), 2020-2021
Froebel Trust funding awarded to develop expertise in partner Early Years settings of the University of Roehampton (Co-PI), 2020-2021
The Arnold Bentley New Initiatives Fund, Society for Education, Music, and Psychology Research, The role of autonomy support from teachers and young children’s self-regulation in music education (PI), 2017- 2019
Southlands Methodist Trust Grant for Project Funding, A musical play intervention as a vehicle for improving self-regulation (PI), 2018-2019
Froebel Trust Research Grant, Developing close thoughtful attention to children and families in early years pedagogy (Co-I), 2016-2018
Milner Walton Music and Drama Grant for developing musical play workshops, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, 2014-2015
English (UK) 
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