Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2016 Newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
eTwinning Ambassadors ’ Course 2015 : Teachers ’ Development , My Powerful Development by Maria Nica
Do you want to know how I felt after following the eTwinning Ambassadors Course ? I will tell you . I felt strengthened , I mean more powerful . No , do not be afraid , this is not a delirium of omnipotence , but only the awareness that the role of an eTwinner , in future scenarios of the European education system , is crucial . So the awareness about this aspect makes me feel responsible for the quality of my training and encourages me to continue on my path of dissemination . experience means students ’ work is real to them , has a direct impact in the real world and the " real world " could still be school , which is a very real place for students . In PBL projects , students feeling free to express their own ideas about a topic in various media might to improve their community , create a physical artifact to display or distribute , consider their own work very useful . The project involves tools , tasks or processes used by adults in real settings in the workplace and they are so engaging for students and allow them to feel like they can have an impact on their world .
As Andreas Schleicher said in his presentation “ An international perspective on teacher development ” at the 2015 Conference on teacher training in Bonn , teacher development must train teaching as a profession , and it means to recruit top candidates into the profession , improve the societal view , retain and recognise effective teachers .
In other words , developing 21st century teachers to prepare 21st century learners must provide to a continuum of support and make learning central , encouraging engagement and responsibility , feeling sensitive to individual differences and providing continual assessment with formative feedback . Furthermore it is necessary to be demanding for every student and ensure that students feel valued and included .
The eTwinning Ambassadors Course showed us new approaches behind eTwinning to foster more effective teaching . In particular , I really liked when Anne Gilleran , Pedagogical Manager eTwinning CSS , in her workshop about eTwinning pedagogy , explained how involvement in a project with Problem Based Learning , an approach that helps pupils to promote critical thinking and facilitate their communication , means students receiving feedback on their performance , developing digital literacy skills and fostering entrepreneurial spirit for an active citizenship .
PBL , said Anne , helps teachers and introduces them to the reflection and experimentation of different pedagogical approaches promoting their continuous professional development . It ’ s mean that in a problem / inquiry based project both pupils and teachers are challenged , but this is not foregone procedure because to activate the inquiry procedures and design a problem based project is necessary begin with a non Googable driving question , a question that does not yield an answer to a simple Google or library search . A PBL
To give visibility and share an activity like a PBL project , it is important for teachers to participate in collaborative practices with their colleagues , this means the higher their level of self-efficacy and job satisfaction . Indeed , collaboration among all stakeholders in the school is essential to create 21st-century learning environments , because to realize a 3.0 school it is necessary to develop four dimensions : regrouping learners to give learners , mixed for ages and abilities , a sense of belonging and engagement with widen pedagogical options , including peer teaching ; regrouping educators to gain the benefits of collaborative planning , work , and shared professional development strategies ; rescheduling learning to allow for and accelerate deeper learning and to use out-of-school learning in effective and innovative ways ; widening pedagogic repertoires . This means considering learning as Open Education , that is institutional practices and programmatic initiatives that broaden access to the learning and training traditionally offered .
During the ambassadors ’ course we learnt that an essential characteristic of open education is the
18