Virtual Exchange for Future Teachers: A Project-based Learning Design

Dressler, Roswita; Jardine, Lyliam

Virtual Exchange for Future Teachers: A Project-based Learning Design

dc.contributor.author	Dressler, Roswita
dc.contributor.author	Jardine, Lyliam
dc.date.accessioned	2022-08-03T20:09:29Z
dc.date.available	2022-08-03T20:09:29Z
dc.date.issued	2022-08-02
dc.description.abstract	Virtual Exchange (VE) has received more attention recently, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Although VE is not new (O’Dowd, 2020), its home is usually in second language programs, rather than education faculties where the focus is less on language learning and more on expanding pedagogical content knowledge (Rets et al., 2020). However, instructors of pre-service teachers still see a need to support language learning while designing for learning around second language teaching (Tedick & Lyster, 2020). During Feb. - Mar. 2021, future language teachers from Spain and Canada took part in a VE that provided experiential learning about second language pedagogy in different cultural contexts while working on improving their Spanish and English respectively. Students in Canada studying to become Spanish as Foreign Language teachers were partnered with students in Spain who were becoming English as Foreign Language teachers. Embedded in a course in both countries, student partners met during an overlapping portion of their respective semesters, both synchronously and asynchronously through a combined course shell. A bilingual TA was hired to support the VE and students had language practice, as the Zoom sessions alternated between using Spanish and English. The design for the courses were built around project-based learning (Stoller, 2006) all modelled around a Choiceboard. Project-based learning allowed students to follow their interests through choices in how to demonstrate their learning in the form of final products. Classwork and partner projects resulted in a meaningful global learning experience. The VE projects involved researching and sharing specific topics of L2 pedagogy and language use (e.g., common teaching approaches; the role of other languages in the classroom; dialect awareness), including one multi-modal assignment. As a result, this VE addressed an ongoing goal of internationalizing this introductory teaching specialization course. The VE also provided intercultural communication and language practice for the students and a design partnership among the Canadian instructor and TA with the Spanish partner instructors.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/114911
dc.identifier.uri	https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/39960
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher.department	Office of Teaching & Learning	en_US
dc.publisher.faculty	Werklund School of Education	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Werklund School of Education Online Pedagogy Series Vignettes	en_US
dc.rights	Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.	en_US
dc.subject	instructional design	en_US
dc.subject	Virtual Exchange	en_US
dc.subject	learning technology	en_US
dc.subject	language learning	en_US
dc.subject	second-language learning	en_US
dc.subject.other	Werklund School of Education Online Pedagogy Series Vignettes
dc.title	Virtual Exchange for Future Teachers: A Project-based Learning Design	en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true	en_US
ucalgary.scholar.level	Faculty	en_US
ucalgary.scholar.level	Graduate	en_US