engleski

Reinventing Teacher Education Through Intercultural Etwinning Projects - An Example From Practice

The growing need of digitally competent teachers for young learners worldwide is undeniable. Teacher educators are challenged to change their teaching practices, re-evaluate their teaching and learning skills, change programs and syllabi according to contemporary needs and act as skilful mentors in preparing future teachers for quality teaching practices. The Teacher Training Initiative which promoted the use of eTwinning in teacher training education brought about new possibilities and challenges both for teacher trainees and their mentors. It offered practices that develop students’ digital competences both as a grounding point for lifelong learning and a means of promoting intercultural knowledge and understanding in different teaching areas, from foreign languages, pedagogy, and literature to added European values in teaching young learners. Moreover, the promotion of collaborative teaching and learning as a central requirement for the development of quality projects enhances both individual responsibility and positive interdependence between colleagues bringing methodological innovation and creativity as well as fostering interdisciplinary pedagogical environments. This presentation focuses on an eTwinning project Stories in the language classroom organized and implemented with teacher trainees from the Faculty of Education in University di Castilla-La Mancha (Albacete, Spain), the Course of Primary Education, University of Salerno (Italy) and the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb (Croatia). The project is described and analysed with respect to the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT) and other relevant documents. The evaluation of the project is carried out by taking into consideration both students’ and mentors’ perspectives. Our findings will offer fertile ground for further reflections on the challenges of developing collaborative and intercultural learning environments.

teacher training, digital competence, intercultural collaboration, eTwinning

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