CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT The project TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED BILINGUALISM MODEL has three fundamental priorities. One is HORIZONTAL: INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN A DIGITAL ERA. And the other two concern the HIGHER EDUCATION: Addressing the existing gaps and inadequacies with respect to linguistic accreditation models and rewarding excellence in learning, teaching and skill development. With the objective of REWARDING EXCELLENCE IN LEARNING, TEACHING, AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT, the project offers an opportunity of academic training based on educational research and innovation. In this way, the specific priority of DEALING WITH EXISITING GAPS AND INADEQUACY OF LINGUISTIC ACCREDITATION is addressed by providing a study of learning outcomes to introduce innovative changes in pedagogies and assessment systems. In addition, the project includes key elements associated to the priority INNOVATIVE POLICIES IN A DIGITAL ERA by incorporating digital technologies and innovative pedagogies in education by means of creating openly accessible digital assessment materials and tools. This project addresses the fact that the implementation of bilingual programmes in schools in Europe is posing a challenge for Higher Education institutions in the training of future teachers. OBJECTIVES • To promote a coordination structure between content specialist teachers and foreign language specialist teachers. • To design collaboration and coordination strategies between the teachers of the schools and the teachers in language schools. • To establish coordination parameters and to define an improved model through pilotage and the definition of satisfaction indicators. • To create new assessment tests to determine specific levels of competence, support and motivation of students in their learning process. • To encourage the creation of specific materials to contextualize and specify the response to the needs of the students of the schools. PARTICIPANTS In order to develop the training activities of the project we will have teachers and management teams, as well as representatives of the School Councils, heads of the Territorial Delegations of Education, Inspectors of Education, management teams of other local schools, institutions and organizations in the educational field at local, regional and national level. We will include students with special educational needs on a regular basis, and the teachers of Therapeutic Pedagogy will receive specific training. ACTIVITIES Some of the planned activities that will be carried out with the help of the requested grant are: 1. Project website. 2. Monographic article in a high impact academic journal. 3. Publication of a report that includes the conclusions of a pilot study in Primary and Secondary schools in collaboration with language schools. 4. Publication of a report with the results of the effect of official certifications on the progression of language learning at disciplinary and non-disciplinary levels. 5. Elaboration of a specific test to measure the academic language related to the content subjects. 6. Creation of supplementary material for the effective use of standardized certification tests. 7. Design of a standardized digital tool to enable the coordination of teachers. 8. Creation of digital content material for English-taught areas. 9. International conference at the university level on bilingual education. 10. International workshops on evaluation. 11. National seminars on bilingual methodologies and materials. METHODOLOGY For the proper development of the project we work on two clear parameters: COORDINATION of the activities and CONTINUOUS EVALUATION of the process at 4 levels: - coordination of the different actions. - monitoring their application. - evaluation of their results with quantitative and qualitative tools. - implemention of the necessary changes. RESULTS AND IMPACT The impact of the project is developed at various levels: - Teachers of Primary and Secondary schools and associated language schools. - University Degree students as teachers to be in bilingual schools. - Primary and Secondary school students in bilingual programmes and in language schools. - Educational authorities. - Educational centers and school community. DISSEMINATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PROJECT A dissemination plan will be established with the objective of sharing the results and encouraging improvements for bilingual programmes, and it is designed for: - Political, social and educational authorities and local and regional advisers. - Associations of Principals/Heads of Primary and Secondary schools and teachers in bilingual programmes. - Teachers of Therapeutic Pedagogy and school counselors. - Teacher training centers.
In HBI (Integrated Bilingual Mode, IBmodell) we mainly wanted to contribute to improving the digital materials available for learning bilingual content, to create tools to optimise the coordination of teachers in schools and, finally, our interest has also been in developing assessment tests for students that would allow us to know more accurately the progress in learning the content taught through a second language in bilingual systems. To this end, we have chosen our partners in the three areas we work in: universities, primary and secondary schools and non-formal language schools. As a result, we have targeted the following key audiences: researchers and future teachers, in-service teachers and learners in bilingual schools, and teachers and learners who develop their learning through a combination of formal and non-formal learning in language schools. In short, our objectives are to better evaluate bilingual teaching, to provide better digital resources and to contribute to better teacher coordination.
The HBI project was born out of a group of manifest needs that emerged in research and bilingual teaching environments in Europe. From primary and secondary schools we could see that the assessment systems of bilingual plans lacked specific tests focused not on the learning of the second foreign language but on the acquisition of content through it. We found that such tests do not currently exist and, therefore, the assessment of bilingual plans does not obtain reliable data to determine their progress in an appropriate manner. On the other hand, we found that the materials available for teaching content in bilingual settings needed to be developed more systematically, making use of the opportunities provided by digital resources. Therefore, we saw that it would be important to develop digital materials that could be used in both formal and non-formal settings. Thirdly, we could see that there is a deficit in the coordination systems between the different educational agents that collaborate in the teaching of a group of students and, therefore, we understood that the creation of a useful tool for teachers was necessary.