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Lesson study

As described in SDG 17 - "Revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development" - cross-country collaboration can lead to many beautiful things. In education, an international exchange is a fruitful way to establish an international partnership with schools from all over the world. VVOB programmes eNSPIRED and SchoolLinks among others have proven how a certain partnership can be successful. But how does such an international collaboration look, and what is its specific impact? We looked for stories of teachers who have experience with an international exchange and interviewed them online. The outcome: a podcast on the power of international exchange in education!

Curious? Listen now!

 

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3aaeFnd

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3dg3mvv

Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3mRN27I

“Who dares to teach should never cease to learn”

The first interviewee is Ha Ahn Phuong, a Vietnamese English teacher who was a top 10 finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2020 and a speaker for the eNSPIRED learning week of 2020. When she was asked why she keeps participating in such events, she said: “Who dares to teach, should never cease to learn.”

 

Phuong has experience in various international exchange projects and practices, but her employment of the Borderless Classroom Model stands out because of its impact. The Borderless Classroom Model makes education available for students no matter where they are. It is not necessary to be in the same space as the teacher. This practice is especially useful in Vietnam as a lot of Phuong’s students live in a remote mountainous area. When students are in class, Phuong can connect her students with students from all over the world. This practice helps to train the students' English skills and ensures a better future.

 

That this practice has a big impact is easy to explain. “Their motivation has turned into intrinsic motivation and all my students pass the final exam, which has never happened in the history of the school.”

“Additional learning took place”

Besides the Borderless Classroom Model, there are many other ways to start an international exchange. One of these ways is via an international lesson study. During a lesson study, teachers collaborate to observe and give feedback on each other’s lessons. They evaluate and revaluate by watching the student’s behaviour but also through interaction with them.

 

Bieke Steeman, a Belgian teacher educator, and Brian Chewe and Flair Kalinga, two Zambian teacher educators, collaborated in an international lesson study. They all learnt a lot from the exchange experience as they travelled to each other’s countries to see how education was organised in a very different context.

 

Brian says he learnt things he would not expect to learn and therefore calls it additional learning. “The impact was bigger than we expected. We have kept on implementing thereafter. When seeing how the Belgian students interacted with their teacher, we were very surprised at first since they dare to be very critical. I thought, at first, that they were being rude. The learning point was that, actually, we limit our students' critical thinking because we inhibit them from expressing their thoughts.”

The final question

In order to make sure that everyone who listens to the podcast gets a clear heads-up on what the advantages of an international exchange are, the final question asked in every interview was: “What do you think is the greatest added value of an international exchange in education?” 

 

To find out what the interviewees answered, we invite you to listen to this podcast.