eTwinning seminars provide in-service teachers with opportunities to develop skills and competences, through teamwork and interaction in an online environment, supporting them to enrich their teaching practices in the classroom and strengthen their self-efficacy. In this article, we present results from the evaluation of eTwinning seminars in Greece, with the aim to investigate how participation obstacles were managed by the trainees, what type of interaction was developed among the trainees, and the extent to which trainees acquired skills which they could apply in their classroom. The study followed a quantitative design, using an online survey with a sample of 753 partici pants (in-service K-12 teachers). Results indicated that most of the partici pants have met their expectations and acknowledged the adequacy of th e educational material and the professional development opportunities. Moreover, results showed that demographic characteristics had a statistically significant effect on respondents’ perceptions and practices.
Keywordse-LearningTeachers Professional DevelopmenteTwinningLearning Com-munitiesProfessional Learning Communities
Alshehry, A. (2018). Case Study of Science Teachers’ Professional Development in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Improvements. International Education Studies, 11, 70-76. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v11n3p70
Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher Professional Development in Teaching and Teacher Education over Ten Years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 10-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.08.007
Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Stoll, L., Thomas, S., Wallace, M., Greenwood, A., Hawkey, K., Igram, M., Atkinson, A., & Smith, M. C. (2005). Creating and Sustaining Effective Professional Learning Communities. Research Report RP371.
Carpenter, D. (2015). School Culture and Leadership of Professional Learning Communities. International Journal of Educational Management, 29, 682-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-04-2014-0046
Cinganotto, L. (2017). Experiential Learning for Teacher Training: A Case Example on Language, Content, and Technologies in a Learning Event by eTwinning. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 13, 91-111.
Cirocki, A., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2019). Professional Development of Secondary School EFL Teachers: Voices from Indonesia. System, 85, Article ID: 102111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.102111
Conn, K. M. (2017). Identifying Effective Education Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Meta-Analysis of Impact Evaluations. Review of Educational Research, 87, 863-898. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654317712025
Creswell, J. W. (2011). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Pearson.
Crisan, G. (2013). The Impact of eTwinning Projects on Teachers’ Professional Development in the Context of the English and Polish Educational System. EduAkcja, 1, 23-40.
DuFour, R., Dufour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities: New Insights for Improving Schools. Solution Tree.
El-Hani, C. N., & Greca, I. M. (2013). ComPratica: A Virtual Community of Practice for Promoting Biology Teachers’ Professional Development in Brazil. Research in Science Education, 43, 1327-1359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-012-9306-1
Gajek, E. (2017). Curriculum Integration in Distance Learning at Primary and Secondary Educational Levels on the Example of eTwinning Projects. Education Sciences, 8, Article 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8010001
Halverson, R. (2018). A Distributed Leadership Perspective on Information Technologies for Teaching and Learning. In J. Voogt, G. Knezek, R. Christensen, & K. W. Lai (Eds.), Second Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education (pp. 499-514). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71054-9_34
Helleve, I. (2010). Theoretical Foundations of Teachers’ Professional Development. In J. O. Lindberg, & A. D. Olofsson (Eds.), Online Learning Communities and Teacher Professional Development: Methods for Improved Education Delivery (pp. 1-3). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-780-5.ch001
Hill, R. (1998). What Sample Size Is Enough in Internet Survey Research. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century, 6, 1-10.
Hillery, G. (1995). Definitions of Community: Areas of Agreement. Rural Sociology, 20, 111-123.
Holmes, B. (2013). School Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development in an Online Learning Community: Lessons from a Case Study Of an eTwinning Learning Event. European Journal of Education, 48, 97-112. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12015
Holmes, B., & Sime, J. A. (2012). Online Learning Communities for Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development: Case Study of an eTwinning Learning Event. In V. Hodgson, C. Jones, M. De Laat, D. McConnell, T. Ryberg, & P. B. Sloep (Eds.) Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Networked Learning (pp.128-135). Lancaster University.
Kampylis P., Bocconi, S., & Punie, Y. (2012). Fostering Innovative Pedagogical Practices through Online Networks: The Case of eTwinning. In J. Valtanen, E. Berki, M. Ruohonen, J. Uhomoibhi, M. Ross, & G. Staples (Eds.), Conference Proceedings INSPIRE XVII—Education Matters (pp. 17-28). University of Tampere. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC74480
Kearney, C., & Gras-Velazquez, A. (2015). eTwinning Ten Years on: Impact on Teachers’ Practice, Skills, and Professional Development Opportunities, as Reported by eTwinners. Central Support Service of eTwinning.
Kilpatrick, S. I., Barrett, M. S., & Jones, T. A. (2003). Defining Learning Communities. In Education AARE 2003 Conference. AARE.
Kostas, A. (2015). Electronic Community for Teachers’ Practicum (e-CTP): Case Study of Communities of Practice Focusing on Student Teachers’ Reflection and Professional Identity. Master’s Thesis, University of the Aegean. (In Greek)
Kostas, A., & Sofos, A. (2012). Internet-Mediated Communities of Practice: Identifying a Typology of Critical Elements. In T. Daradoumis, S. Demetriadis, & F. Xhafa (Eds.), Intelligent Adaptation and Personalization Techniques in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Studies in Computational Intelligence, 2012, Volume 408/2012 (pp. 311-334). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28586-8_14
Kostas, A., Berdeklis, F., & Sofos, A. (2021). Technology Readiness and Actual Use of Greek School Network by Primary Teachers. In: Τ. Tsiatsos, S. Demetriadis, A. Mikropoulos, & V. Dagdilelis (Εds.), Research on E-Learning and ICT in Education (pp. 59-73). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_4
Kul, U. (2018). Influences of Technology Integrated Professional Development Course on Mathematics Teachers. European Journal of Educational Research, 7, 233-243. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.7.2.233
Lam, Y. L. J. (2005). School Organizational Structures: Effects on Teacher and Student Learning. Journal of Educational Administration, 43, 387-401. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230510605432
Little, J. W. (1987). Teachers as Colleagues. In V. Richardson-Koehler (Ed.), Educators’ Handbook: A Research Perspective (pp. 492-518). Longman.
Lumpe, A. T. (2007). Research-Based Professional Development: Teachers Engaged in Professional Learning Communities. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 18, 125-128. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43156410 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-006-9018-3
Mendes, C., da Silva, A., & Tribolet, J. (2008). Learning Communities and Communities of Practice Organizational Learning SYSTEMS. In 8th Conferenceia Associacao Portuguest de Sistemas de Informacao.
Papadakis, S. (2016). Creativity and Innovation in European Education. Ten Years eTwinning. Past, Present and the Future. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 8, 279-296. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTEL.2016.082315
Pateraki, I. (2018). Measuring the Impact of eTwinning Activities on Teachers’ Practice and Competence Development—Monitoring eTwinning Practice Framework. Central Support Service of eTwinning.
Poplin, D. E. (1979). Communities: A Survey of Theories and Methods of Research. MacMillan.
Robson, C. (2010). Real World Research. Wiley.
Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher Professional Development, Technology, and Communities of Practice: Are We Putting the Cart before the Horse? The Information Society, 19, 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240309464
Stuckey, B. E. (2007). Growing Online Community Core Conditions to Support Successful Development of Community in Internet-Mediated Communities of Practice. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wollongong.
Tavakol, M., & Dennick, R. (2011). Making Sense of Cronbach’s α. International Journal of Medical Education, 2, 53-55. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd
Vo, L.T., & Nguyen, H. T. M. (2010). Critical Friends Group for EFL Teacher Professional Development. ELT Journal, 64, 205-213. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccp025
Watkins, C. (2005). Classrooms as Learning Communities. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203390719
Whitehouse, P., McCloskey, E., & Ketelhut, D. J. (2010). Online Pedagogy Design and Development: New Models for 21st Century Online Teacher Professional Development. In J. Lindberg, & A. Olofsson (Eds.), Online Learning Communities and Teacher Professional Development: Methods for Improved Education Delivery (pp. 247-262). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-780-5.ch014
Wolf, S., & Peele, M. E. (2019). Examining Sustained Impacts of Two Teacher Professional Development Programs on Professional Well-Being and Classroom Practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86, Article ID: 102873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.07.003
Zandraveli, V. (2017). eTwinning Learning Events Reinforcing Teachers’ Non Formal and Informal Learning in Distance Education. Master’s Thesis, Hellenic Open University. (In Greek) https://apothesis.eap.gr/archive/item/81829?lang=en
Zhao, G., Yang, X., Long, T., & Zhao, R. (2019). Teachers Perceived Professional Development in a Multi-Regional Community of Practice: Effects of Beliefs and Engagement. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 23, Article ID: 100347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2019.100347