A Study on teaching-specific effects of mobility programmes in teacher education

Image caption:

At universities of teacher education, exchange programmes are becoming increasingly popular among students. As a review of the available research literature shows, the most obvious individual effects of exchange programmes that can be identified are not teaching-specific. The question to what extent the participation in an exchange programme changes teaching-specific attitudes and mentalities, or even further corresponding competencies for teachers, is so far only partially explained empirically. These retrospective data have a limited validity in regard to the development of specific competencies during an exchange stay.

In this context, the study based on a methodically solid analysis shows to what extent students in teacher education profit from mobility programmes and which competencies, attitudes and mentalities are developed during an exchange stay.

The empirical basis of this study is provided by data from a longitudinal assessment with students from teacher education universities in Switzerland, with an experimental group (students participating in a mobility programme) and a control group (students studying at the home university for a similar period of time).

On this basis the research project was able to identify teacher-specific effects on exchange stays and the benefit of such exchange stays for the teaching profession.