In today’s foreign language (FL) education, teachers universally recognise the importance of fostering students’ ability to communicate in the target language. However, the current assessments often do not (sufficiently) evaluate this. In her dissertation, Charline Rouffet aims to gather insight into the potential of assessments to steer FL teaching practices. Communicative learning objectives FL teachers fully support the communicative learning objectives formulated at national level and embrace the principles of communicative language teaching. Yet, assessments instead primarily focus on formal language knowledge in isolation (e.g., grammar rules), disconnected from real-world communicative contexts. This misalignment between assessment practices and communicative objectives hampers effective FL teaching. CBA toolbox The aim of this design-based PhD research project is to gather insight into the potential of assessments to steer FL teaching practices. To this end, tools for developing communicative classroom-based assessment (CBA) programmes were designed and implemented in practice, in close collaboration with FL teachers. Rouffet's dissertation consists of multiple studies, in which the current challenges of FL education are addressed and the usage of the CBA toolbox is investigated. Findings reveal that assessing FL competencies in a more communicative way can transform teaching practices, placing communicative abilities at the heart of FL education.
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This project builds upon a collaboration which has been established since 15 years in the field of social work between teachers and lecturers of Zuyd University, HU University and Elte University. Another network joining this project was CARe Europe, an NGO aimed at improving community care throughout Europe. Before the start of the project already HU University, Tallinn Mental Health Centre and Kwintes were participating in this network. In the course of several international meetings (e.g. CARe Europe conference in Prague in 2005, ENSACT conferences in Dubrovnik in 2009, and Brussels in April 2011, ESN conference in Brussels in March 2011), and many local meetings, it became clear that professionals in the social sector have difficulties to change current practices. There is a great need to develop new methods, which professionals can use to create community care.
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Extended Reality (XR) technologies—including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR)—offer transformative opportunities for education by enabling immersive and interactive learning experiences. In this study, we employed a mixed-methods approach that combined systematic desk research with an expert member check to evaluate existing pedagogical frameworks for XR integration. We analyzed several established models (e.g., TPACK, TIM, SAMR, CAMIL, and DigCompEdu) to assess their strengths and limitations in addressing the unique competencies required for XRsupported teaching. Our results indicate that, while these models offer valuable insights into technology integration, they often fall short in specifying XR-specific competencies. Consequently, we extended the DigCompEdu framework by identifying and refining concrete building blocks for teacher professionalization in XR. The conclusions drawn from this research underscore the necessity for targeted professional development that equips educators with the practical skills needed to effectively implement XR in diverse educational settings, thereby providing actionable strategies for fostering digital innovation in teaching and learning.
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