Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Exchange on Teacher Education, Leon, İspanya, 8 - 09 Şubat 2024, (Yayınlanmadı)
During the COVID-19, professional isolation in educational contexts became much more acute than
before since teachers had restricted access to professional support networks that diminished their
motivation to work and interfered with the collaboration opportunities with their international
colleagues. Similarly initial teacher education contexts witnessed a lack of collaboration and mentoring
opportunities between in-service and pre-service teachers, In the post-pandemic period, the negative
impact of professional isolation in the in-service teacher education context and restricted collaboration
and mentoring opportunities between prospective and in-service teachers in the pre-service teacher
education contexts is still felt. Hence, the aim of this current study is to explore the reflections of the
Turkish EFL pre-service teachers’ reflections on the benefits and challenges of their engagement in
three 5-week international collaborative professional development opportunities with international
mentors in a virtual exchange project (VALIANT). This qualitative multiple case study adopted the
sociocultural approach to teacher education. A total of 41 pre-service teachers from an English-
medium state university and 20 international mentor teachers were actively formed an online
community of practice, engaging in a collaborative preparation of an open-access educational resource
in three implementations of the project. The data were collected via pre-service teachers’ online
reflections on their practicum challenges, the open educational resources (e-booklets) that were created
in collaboration with the in-service teachers in the study, their end-of-the-project reflections and the
semi-structured interviews. They were analyzed via content analysis. Findings suggested pre-service
teachers’ gaining new insights and perspectives into how to cope with practicum challenges, and their
becoming familiar with inclusive practices, and culturally responsive teaching, and effective classroom
management strategies and how to enhance student engagement, motivation and well-being, and how
to effectively integrate technology into teaching. Being part of an international collaborative support
network empowered pre-service teachers professionally and promoted their self-efficacy.