RESEARCH MATERIAL AND FEEDBACK ON THE INNOVATIVE TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN SLOVAKIA

ABSTRACT


Project management
The Slovak Association of Teachers of French is a non-profit organization that provides many activities, such as methodological seminars.The association was granted accreditation by the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic to provide innovative training to teachers of Romance languages and English.The aims to achieve high-quality professional development, especially with the help of the highest quality tool of education courses and job-shadowing -Erasmus+ projects.
The teachers of French and other Romance languages in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (Nadvornikova, Klinka, 2023) and their students are an educationally disadvantaged group, as these languages are taught minimally.The teachers of these languages are thus few and isolated, with ever fewer opportunities for exchanging work-related knowledge.
The teachers who took part in the project agree that it is necessary to learn new tools of digitization to transfer their knowledge with regard to practical French language lessons, preserving some of in it pedagogical documentation.This material can then be used to create a high-quality teaching process in an innovative manner, such as offering mixed classes in which the students would get an explanation of the subject matter digitally (an inverted lecture) and then in the real, physical classroom can apply the knowledge gained, for example by preparing graduation questions, or the material can be used to create various educational portals on which learning games can also be hosted.Improving one's competences in the field of ICT is a strong motivational element in the activation of teachers in this context.

Goals
The goals of Erasmus+ innovative training were to improve the methodological competences of the participants, to innovate methodological procedures by exchanging experience and knowledge in an international context, to improve ICT knowledge and competences, to create new lesson plans, and to apply them to the school education programme.

Number of participants and activities for the innovative education
The activities we used in our project to motivate the teachers to participate in innovative education were a training course and job-shadowing.As part of this teachers were sent abroad 31 times.

Participants' feedback on activities
The following table presents the participants' replies, asking them if they received any preparation, training or information about the destination country and the hosting organization before departing for their mobility activity, and if they felt that the preparation and information were useful to them.

100.00%
Out of the positive answers, replies to a follow-up question about usefulness of the preparation Yes, I felt well prepared 92.00% Yes, but I needed more preparation 8.00% No, I did not find it useful 0,00% Participants indicating they did not receive any preparation, training or information 0,00% In the feedback the participants were asked to answer the questions concerning any improvements in language proficiency.The following table the presents participants' reports on their language learning.The data exclude those participants who stated they were already fluent in the main language used during their mobility period.

Percentage of positive replies -individual activities
Percentage of positive replies -group activities Do you think that you have improved your skills in the main language used during your mobility period?80.00% -% Did you receive any support to improve your language skills before or during your mobility period (for example: a language course, language learning materials, language coaching or similar)?
45.00% -% The following table summarizes the information about the certifications provided to the participants in this project.

Recognition at national level 20
Recognition at regional level 16 The replies to the question "How satisfied were you with your Erasmus+ mobility experience?" are presented below: In the feedback provided by the teachers who went to observe the classes in France, we can find information about their level of satisfaction as well as the relevance and quality of the classes.

Percentage of positive replies
The teaching / training at the hosting organisation was of good quality and relevant for me / the group of learners that I have accompanied.

100.00%
I felt well received and well integrated at my hosting organisation.I / Myself and the participants in my group felt well received and well integrated at my hosting organisation.

100.00%
In short, 100% of the teachers who attended the observation classes were satisfied with them and appreciated the quality of the observed classes.
The following tables present the participants' replies to the questions asking how they benefited from their mobility experience.

Share of participants indicating they have benefited in this way
I have learned or improved practical skills relevant for my current job and for my professional development.

96.00%
I have improved my knowledge of the subject I am teaching and of my professional field.

88.00%
I have improved my organisational, management and leadership skills.

Percentage of learner participants agreeing with the statement
I have learned more about environmental, climate and sustainability issues.

48.00% -
I have changed my habits to become more sustainable.

28.00% -
I have a better understanding of the diversity in my society.

92.00% -
I am more committed to work against discrimination, intolerance, xenophobia and racism.

80.00% -
I am more interested in participating in elections, in other democratic processes, and in the life of my local community.

Percentage of learner participants agreeing with the statement
I have learned more about Europe, the European Union and European values.

76.00% -
I have learned more about new and useful ways to apply digital technology.

92.00% -
I am eager to use more digital technologies in my studies or work.

92.00% -
A total of 92% of the teachers who participated in the mobilities stated that after the experience they had a better understanding of diversity in the society, learned a lot about ITC and digital technologies and were now more eager to use such technologies in their studies or work.
However, only 28% of teachers stated that they had changed their habits and become more sustainable.
The last table summarizes information about the key competences targeted for improvement.Most of the teachers (28) stated that they had improved their digital and ITC competences.All of the teachers (31) claimed that they had improved their interpersonal skills and ability to adopt new competences.Four of them said that they were now better at organizing their competence of being an active citizen.other tasks.However, the weak side of ICT tasks was that they initiated rather individual activities that focused more on receptive skills, and they initiated very few productive skills and little peer communication.Other tasks prepared by teachers initiated collective activity.

Key competences targeted for improvement
Some of the participants introduced changes to their practices without the need to complete the course on innovative education, and one of them disseminates their knowledge in the Košice region.

CONCLUSION
To summarize, all the participants stated that they were very satisfied with their innovative training courses, and all of them met the sub-goals.
In the project, 31 mobilities were managed.Hybrid mobility in Nice brought its fruit in the form of 70 hours of training course education for 20 participants who achieved a benchmark grade of 1.4, and 56 hours of education for three participants who achieved a benchmark grade of 1.12.Job-shadowing mobility in Besancon with a bonus training course brought 50 hours of training for seven participants, and job-shadowing mobility in CFAIE Val-de-Reuil was an extra mobility.All the training participants received an international certificate for successful completion of the activities.
All the participants were also offered the opportunity to complete their training by presenting their work and defending it through recognition of innovative education at the national level.Registered and completed participants were issued a certificate of innovative training education.Since the defences took place as a dissemination exchange of knowledge for other teachers of the French language, the participants of these disseminations were also issued certificates for updating training education at the national level.
Finally, we conclude our study by pointing at the teachers' activity in schools, were they created a collection of activating lessons, instructions and techniques, and they are all already applying the acquired knowledge and multiplicatively created activities in their teaching process.
Thanks to Erasmus+, we provided the qualitative exchange of knowledge by using new techniques, methods, and tools, which were then immediately implemented in teaching.The mutual cooperation between the schools and teachers improved.The teachers got access to excellent methodologies and approaches to ICT tools, summarized, specified, and reflected on these during the dissemination seminars, and then applied them in the teaching process at schools all over Slovakia.
Francophonia teacher training centre in Nice in the summer of 2022 (for some of the teachers this entailed 70 hours of training, and for others 56).Seven teachers participated in an observation internship (job-shadowing) in CLA Besancon linked to the methodological training course (50 hours).One teacher went on an observation internship in CFAIE Val-de-Reuil.