In the future, on what topics and in which format would eTwinners prefer

delivered to them?

With a view to best adapt the PD offer in the next 2 years, respondents were asked to select one or more of the options seen in Figure 30 to indicate the topics they would most like to receive professional development on, in the future, via eTwinning.

Teachers’ preferred topic for professional development according to respondents is teaching and learning methodologies (67%), closely followed by competence-based topics (61%) and subject-based topics (58%). Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is less popular with respondents, with only 44% showing interest. This is unsurprising as while the other topics are more generic and relevant to all teachers, CLIL is rather a specific area practised and of interest to a relatively smaller number of teachers.

0% 10%

3%

9%

67%

44%

61%

58%

20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Teaching and learning methodologies

Competence-based topics

Subject-based topics CLIL (Content and Language Integrated

Learning) Other I am not interested in Professional

Development activities Figure 30: Preferred topics for professional development

When analysing teachers’ preferences for professional development at national level, we see that most of the countries with the highest number of responses follow the European trend quite closely, with a few interesting country distinctions. France is the only country to have below 50% of respondents stating that professional development devoted to teaching and learning methodologies is amongst their preferences as compared to other countries with between 58% and 75%. This may be in part because they receive sufficient and satisfactory training in teaching and learning methodologies through national continuous professional development programmes, and rather turn to eTwinning for professional development in other areas such as subject-based topics (61%) and competence-based topics (59%). The country most interested in competence-based professional development is Greece (73%), and the one most interested in subject-based professional development is Turkey (69%).

Most countries have less than 50% of respondents favouring CLIL-related professional development, except in Spain (60%) and Italy (56%).

As illustrated by Figure 31, face-to-face national and European professional development workshops are rated most highly by teachers, with 59% and 56% of them respectively stating these to be their preferred formats for future professional development within eTwinning. This result is consistent with Figure 24 which reveals that around 98% of teachers find the face-to-face professional development activities they have already participated in to be quite or very useful.

0% 10%

31%

40%

37%

59%

56%

51%

48%

53%

20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Face-to-face national eTwinning workshops

Face-to-face European eTwinning workshops

eTwinning online learning events

eTwinning online seminars

eTwinning online courses Online eTwinning Events (video-conferencing sessions accessible from eTwinning Live organized by other eTwinners)

eTwinning groups

Teacher Academy MOOCs

Figure 31: Preferred formats for professional development

In terms of the online professional development offered, respondents most preferred format is that of the online Learning Events. It is interesting to observe that established online professional development opportunities (which have been already running for several years, including online Learning Events, Seminars and Courses), are preferred in terms of format by a higher percentage of respondents in comparison to newer forms of professional development (namely, the online eTwinning events and Teacher Academy Massive Open Online Courses) which have been introduced within eTwinning rather recently in 2016. This, on one side, has to do with the limited offer at the time of the survey (late 2016) and on the other with teachers being less familiar with these newer opportunities within eTwinning. It will be interesting to monitor whether respondents’ preferences change in the coming years once these most recent additions to the professional development offer of eTwinning become more established.

While we observed in Figure 24 that respondents appreciated various online professional development activities to the same extent, we noticed that the participation in these events was not to the same degree. Just as the participation in the eTwinning online courses was the lowest, so is its rating in terms of preferred format (even if only slightly lower). This cross analysis could indicate that while online Learning Events and online courses are appreciated to the same degree, they are not participated in to the same degree potentially because of their difference in format (although it is impossible on the basis of this data to infer a causal link). While online Learning Events last only two weeks, online courses last around 6 weeks, so it is possible that the shorter format is more convenient for teachers’ busy schedules, hence why it may have a higher rating as a preferred format. This trend was also apparent in the 2014 data. Moreover, it should be noted that online courses, while open to all eTwinners, have specific target audiences (eTwinning ambassadors, online moderators), and participants are proposed by National Support Services via a quota per country, which also accounts for their lower participation.

ETWINNING’S IMPACT ON TEACHERS’ SKILLS, TEACHING PRACTICES AND PARTICIPATION IN ETWINNING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN A NUTSHELL According to the respondents of the 2017 eTwinning monitoring survey:

z Teachers feel that eTwinning has had a particularly positive impact on their cross-curricular teaching skills, project-based teaching skills and foreign language teaching skills.

z eTwinning has also positively effected their collaborative skills in working with teachers of other subjects, their knowledge about students, their pedagogical competencies in teaching a particular subject/s, their ability to choose the right teaching strategy in any given situation, and the ability to teach in a multicultural or multilingual setting.

z As a result of their involvement in eTwinning, eTwinners engage in more multidisciplinary teaching as well as focus on developing students’ competences as much as their knowledge acquisition.

z eTwinners teach their students the process of ‘learning to learn’

more now than before as a result of their eTwinning engagement, and also dedicate time to student-focused whole class discussions.

z As a result of eTwinning, teachers have increased their participation in online training courses as well as their use of ICT and social media as teaching tools.

z A large majority of teachers have integrated new tools, resources and teaching methods into their practice thanks to their involvement in eTwinning.

z eTwinning encourages teachers to reflect on their own teaching practice, although this does not necessarily mean that such reflections are shared with colleagues at school level, especially in less innovative schools.

z Experienced teachers and advanced eTwinners, and all those working in innovative schools, are better placed to deal with diversity thanks to their participation in eTwinning activities.

z More than 90% on average of teachers who have participated in eTwinning’s collaborative spaces and training opportunities find them to be quite or very useful.

z eTwinners (both new and advanced) particularly enjoy interacting via eTwinning Live and use eTwinning Groups quite a lot.

z Advanced eTwinners are strongly involved in professional development activities taking place on the platform although Just under half of all respondents state that formal recognition in eTwinning through certificates awarded for participation in specific professional development events is useful for their career development at national level