Unit 6.

Task 1: Explain why do you think teachers should share/learn good educational
practices through a community of practice or a European project. Give some examples.
In my opinion, teachers should share good educational practices through a community
of practice or a European project basically because it can be useful to help promote the
knowledge triangle which integrates: education, research and innovation, and it is also
a way to enrich the understanding of concepts and different methodologies regarding
CLIL.
The communities of practice are very important in education world. The first
applications of them have been in teacher training. There is a wave of interest in these
peer-to-peer professional-development activities. The perspective of communities of
practice affect educational practices along three dimensions: internally, externally and
over the lifetime of student. From this perspective, the school is not a self-contained,
close world. Schools and classrooms have to be in the service of learning that happens
in the world.
We can mention some advantages when focusing on communities of practice. Short
term value: help with challenges, access to expertise, confident, problem solving, time
saving, knowledge sharing....Long-term value: personal development, professional
identity, strategic capabilities, innovation, network, retention of talents
There are two very important European projects, among others: Comenius and
Erasmus+Programme. Some of their objectives are to enhance the quality of teaching
and learning, to promote the quality in the teaching of EU languages and to promote
intercultural awareness in school education in Europe.
These projects seek to achieve these objectives by stimulating the professional
development of all types of staff involved in school education and by improving access
to training opportunities// in countries participating in these programmes. An example
of Comenius project is Face to face, which is an international media education project
for encouraging communication between young students from various ethnic groups in
Europe. Dissemination and exploitation of results is one of the crucial areas of this
European projects, giving participating organisations the opportunity to communicate
and share outcomes. To sum up we can say these programmes should also ensure that
education, training and youth policies further contribute to Europe 2020 objectives of
competitiveness, employment and growth through mores successful labour market
integration and more mobility, and to reach its education and employment headline
targets.