Zentrum für LehrerInnenbildung (ZfL) Uni Köln's video: TeaTimeThursday: Internationalisation online

21.01.2021 Internationalisation online: taking teacher education across the globe - Prof. Dr. Bärbel Diehr, Lisa Fischer, Lea Uhlmann This workshop explores the rationale for and the effect of internationalising teacher education drawing on the experiences gained in the University of Wuppertal’s long-standing PrimA (Praktikum im Ausland = school placement abroad) programme. Like so many other projects PrimA came to an abrupt halt in March 2020, when the corona pandemic forced some 50 students to cancel their three-month school placement in the UK. Stranded in an online semester at home, they had to adapt quickly to new challenges. Their lecturers, who – under normal circumstances – would have supervised the students’ school placements via digital media, but also through a personal mid-term visit, decided to design an alternative class overnight that would allow students to experience internationalisation at home and gain credits for their course. The main aim was to encourage the student teachers to go on virtual tours of interesting sites, such as museums and galleries all across the globe, where they would encounter inspiring cultural phenomena and fascinating linguistic input. To obtain credit points they were tasked to design an EFL teaching unit based on a virtual tour of their own choice. To this end they were provided with a model unit and asked to look at a 17th century Dutch painting and listen to the local curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam talk about one of his favourite paintings. Towards the end of this workshop we shall reflect upon the insights gleaned from this online experience and enquire about the benefits of internationalisation at home compared to the stay abroad as we knew it. https://zfl.uni-koeln.de/projekte/unite-cologne/tea-time-thursday