does exchange between teachers (through physical and virtual mobility) improve the quality of...

Does exchange between teachers (through physical and virtual mobility)

improve the quality of teaching? Group IV

Dr. Riina VuorikariEuropean Schoolnet

riina.vuorikari@eun.org

Main lines of the presentation:

1. Mobility as a “state of mind” - involving students in eTwinning– key message: culture of change within the institution

2. Teachers professional development through on-line “exchange of practices”– key message: up-skilling takes place

3. Formal and informal recognition– examples from eTwinning in Poland, Spain and Estonia

eTwinning offers teachers tools to work with students

to start a “culture of change” within the institution

eTwinning is not a trigger for teachers’ professional development, but an added value!

Crawley et al, 2009

The next question:

If more and more research recognises the value of informal PD,

how can national and local in-service training

schemes best take advantage of it?

Example from eTwinning

57% yes, to some extent!

eTwinning can be used for formal professional development

• Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain

• Vuorikari, R. (2010). eTwinning Report 2010: Teachers’ professional development: an overview of current practice. European Schoolnet.

Example from eTwinning

e.g. Spain

e.g. Poland, Estonia

Does exchange between teachers (through physical and virtual mobility) improve the quality of teaching?

Yes, good teaches make good students!

References•Crawley, C., Gilleran, A., Scimeca, S., Vuorikari, R., & Wastiau, P. (2009). Beyond School Projects, A report on eTwinning 2008-2009. Central Support Service for eTwinning (CSS), European Schoolnet. Retrieved from http://resources.eun.org/etwinning/25/EN_eTwinning_165x230_Report.pdf

•Vuorikari, R. (2010). eTwinning Report 2010: Teachers’ professional development: an overview of current practice. European Schoolnet. Retrieved from http://desktop.etwinning.net/library/desktop/resources/5/55/955/43955/etwinning_report_teachers_professional_development_en.pdf

•Vuorikari, R., Gilleran, A., & Scimeca, S. (2011). Growing beyond Innovators – ICT-Based School Collaboration in eTwinning. In C. D. Kloos, D. Gillet, R. M. Crespo García, F. Wild, & M. Wolpers (Eds.), Towards Ubiquitous Learning (Vol. 6964, pp. 537-542). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. http://tellnet.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=10704&folderId=18137&name=DLFE-515.pdf