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Exploring teachers’ professional development through participation in virtual exchange

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2021

Robert O’Dowd Open the ORCID record for Robert O’Dowd [Opens in a new window]  and
Melinda Dooly Open the ORCID record for Melinda Dooly [Opens in a new window]
Robert O’Dowd
Affiliation:
University of León, Spain ([email protected])
Melinda Dooly
Affiliation:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain ([email protected])
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Abstract

Virtual exchange (VE) is an umbrella term used to refer to the engagement of groups of students in sustained online intercultural interaction and collaboration with international partners under the guidance of their teachers. In the computer-assisted language learning literature, telecollaboration and eTandem approaches to VE have been researched extensively. However, this research has principally focused to date on learner gains and the impact on teachers has been much less explored. This paper identifies the impact of VE on foreign language teachers’ practices and their professional development by examining the results of a qualitative study of 31 teacher trainers who engaged their classes in VE projects as part of a large-scale European project. The findings of the study suggest that participation in VE projects provides teachers with valuable experience in continued professional development and methodological innovation. In particular, VE was seen to open up opportunities for teachers to develop new professional partnerships, collaborative academic initiatives, to develop their own online collaboration skills, and also to introduce more innovative approaches in their current teaching practice.

Keywords

virtual exchangetelecollaborationinnovationonline teachinginitial teacher education
Type
Research Article
Information
ReCALL , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 21 - 36
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning

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