Finding synergies between teachers professional development and eTwinning

Reforming professional development (PD) through eTwinning

Riina VuorikariCentral Support Service

In-house expert

Berlin Nov 10-12 2011 (eTwinning: Leading 21st Century Schools)

Finding synergies between professional development and eTwinning

Riina VuorikariCentral Support Service

In-house expert

Berlin Nov 10-12 2011 (eTwinning: Leading 21st Century Schools)

“Professional development is defined as activities that develop an individual’s skills, knowledge, expertise and other characteristics as a teacher.

What is professional development?

This definition recognises that development can be provided in many ways, ranging from the formal to the informal.

It can be made available through external expertise in the form of courses, workshops or formal qualification programmes, through collaboration between schools or teachers across schools or within the schools in which teachers work” (TALIS, 2009: 49).

TALIS, OECD, 2009

TALIS, OECD, 2009

Dec 2008…beyond projects..more social networking approach

Jan 2005 Dec 2005 Sept 2006 Jan 2008

Teachers Rooms, Profiles

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European-wide professional development workshops

National training, e.g. online courses

eTwinning school collaboration projects

Learning Events, Groups

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European-wide professional development workshops

National training, e.g. online courses

eTwinning school collaboration projects

Learning Events, Groups

Little steps at the time...

Up-skill in areas such digital competences

The useof ICT to support teaching and learning (new methods)

Integrating ICTs into into subject teaching

Collaboration with other teachers

Communication in foreignlanguages,

Other areas of personal development such asintercultural dialogue and social competence

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

eTwinning 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.

eTwinning reach=

number of eTwinners / number of teachers

On average, 2.64% of European teachers are eTwinners

Diffusion of innovation (1)

Crawley et al, 2009

a Quality Label, a sign of recognition of eTwinning excellent activities awarded to schools. NSS award National Quality Labels to schools that successfully apply for it.

European eTwinning Prizes, awarded every year to schools selected by a European evaluation board.

Formal recognition through eTwinning

Informal recognition = the recognition that teachers receive from peers, school management, pupils and parents.

Additionally, informal recognition can be related to teachers’ intrinsic motivation to participate in eTwinning and their personal development goals

Informal recognition through eTwinning

example: Informal recognition thriving teachers

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!

Example from eTwinning

e.g. Spain

e.g. Poland, Estonia

Maria from Spain first heard about eTwinning through a national online course that is offered in collaboration with the online teacher training department within the Ministry of Education. There were more than thirty other online courses

available, but the international aspect of eTwinning intrigued her. The course lasted for two months and she learned

to understand the pedagogical principles of eTwinning, to design an eTwinning project and to manage the variety of eTwinning tools. The course was valued at four credits for her

career advancement.

Formal recognition: eTwinning course credits

Anna from Poland is currently applying for the third degree of a professional teacher promotion. At this stage of her professional advancement,

she needs to demonstrate to the qualification committee that, among other things, she has developed certain methods of work and ICT skills. She plans to use her current eTwinning-project

as a demonstration of that. So even if she thinks eTwinningis fun and

motivating, it’s important that she can also use the project, its planning, the process and outcomes - different materials and documents - to demonstrate her newly acquired skills.

Formal recognition: career advancement

Kirsten from Estonia participated in an in-service training course of ten modules of face-to-face teaching (forty hours) on how to use ICT for teaching and learning processes. One of the modules is on eTwinning: the other modules

include among other things new technology and creativity at kindergarten level and training for head teachers. After having done her own eTwinning project, she became a

volunteer “mentor” for other teachers. Her task is to encourage teachers in nearby schools to

take part in eTwinning actions. This happens through various peer-to-peer activities (e.g., on subject bases) and sharing best practices in the pedagogical use of ICT and pedagogical school projects. In Estonian teaching culture, being an innovative

teacher also makes one popular among colleagues and pupils.

Informal recognition: volunteer “mentor”

One of Anna’s colleagues in another school, an eTwinning Ambassador. She has already com pleted her career advancement programme, but still loves to participate in eTwinning. She finds that thanks to eTwinning, there is

more interest in her teaching job from outside the school, from parents and other teachers. And thanks to the language skills she has

gained through running eTwinning-projects, she also gets some new tasks in her school. Recently she helped prepare a meeting with

teachers from European schools who visited the municipality.

Informal recognition: peer recognition

Support from the senior school management Possible integration to local/school curriculum eTwinning teams a well-developed and active professional

development culture in the school. – e.g. islands of innovation (upto 15% of the teacher and/or student

population) vs. school-wide implementation (involving more than 50% of the teacher and/or student population)

– Who leads the initiative; teacher-led vs. school head-led?– Level of previous innovation: is this common practice in school vs. is

eTwinning the only example. Other conditions (timing, PD, peer-learning)

School conditions for good eTwinnig work

Write down an example of a practice that takes place in school:

that you consider teachers’ professional development through eTwinning

that you could consider implementing as teachers’ professional development

Group discussion

Value defined through social capital – the sense of belonging to the community – the provided and received support– the social network structure

Offer a high potential for teachers– to up-skill in areas such digital competences, – the useof ICT to support teaching and learning, – communication in foreignlanguages, – other areas of personal development such asintercultural

dialogue and social competence

Value of informal learning networks for individuals

Diffusion of innovation (2)

Now, imagine: “viruses” spread through collaboration.

This virus is a positive one, called eTwinning.

Who will notget the virus?

Who will not get the virus?

The ones who are not connected, e.g. who are not collaborating with others.

Diffusion of innovationwithin a schoolfollows the same pattern! Institutionalising “culture of

change”

What is the role of Teacher Networks for professional development in Europe in 2025?

ReferencesTeachers’ Lifelong Learning Network (www.tellnet.eun.org)

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