eTwinning in initial teacher education for personal and professional development

Marzia Luzzini¹, Ivana Milković², Esther Luisa Nieto Moreno de Diezmas³  Sandra Reami⁴, 

¹ University of Sacred Heart in Milan

²University of Zagreb, faculty of Teacher Education

³University of Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Education

¹ University of Bologna

Education for personal and professional development

Abstract

eTwinning as part of the European School Education Platform (ESEP) offers a safe platform for international collaboration on educational projects. Since research in pre-primary, primary and secondary educational settings proved many benefits for both teachers and pupils who participated in eTwinning projects, eTwinning has gained momentum in the initial teacher education as an opportunity to better prepare future teachers for the life and work in the 21st century. 

eTwinning in initial teacher education has been used for personal and professional development of future teachers and as a possible support for the development of key competences, including autonomy, creativity, collaboration, and entrepreneurship. The participation in eTwinning projects provides the opportunity to promote project-based teaching and learning, inter-/multi-disciplinary work, and to develop linguistic and digital competences. eTwinning offers the perfect environment for European openness and internationalization, which promotes intercultural competences and, at the same time, the development of professional skills, useful for future teachers.

This paper presents the results of a survey conducted among students of three European countries (Italy, Spain, and Croatia) who participated in an eTwinning project. The study aims to compare the student teachers’ opinions on personal and professional benefits of eTwinning with respect to their country of studies. 

The key findings of this study indicate the personal and professional benefits of using eTwinning as an educational tool in the education of future teachers and point out areas for possible improvements. 

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