VIRTUAL LEARNING IN TEACHER EDUCATION. FROM BOOKS OVER WEB 1.0 TECHNOLOGY TO WEB 2.0 COLLABORATION

This paper focuses on the education of teachers for tomorrow's learning. Education is viewed as the introduction of pre-service teachers into different professional communities of practice (COP) that will help them develop a personal approach to teaching, building on a shared knowledge base, shared teaching methodologies, a shared engagement for teaching and a shared vision on what constitutes excellent teaching (Shulman & Shulman 2004). In online COPs, facilitated by web 2.0 technologies, learners can reflect on how their personal convictions concerning teaching link in with those coconstructed by other COP members (Lave & Wenger 1998). Via active participation in COPs, teachers can deepen and nuance their understanding of key concepts and theories underlying particular approaches to teaching. At the same time they can construct a professional identity that also incorporates a commitment to lifelong learning and personal development in interaction with other professionals in the field of subject teaching. In this paper, we report on an innovation project in one teacher education programme offered at the University of Leuven (K. U. Leuven), and elaborate on the pedagogical principles underlying two new blended learning environments (BLE). These learning environments, one concerning language teaching methodology ('Think LT!') and one concerning Content and Language Integrated Learning ('CLIL in SLO'), centre on individual reflection in interaction with both learning materials and peers. The paper finishes with a discussion of how teacher education changed after the introduction of online learning environments: from a curriculum that considered the passing on of relevant knowledge as its core teaching strategy to one that regards the capacity to make informed decisions the core of initial teacher education.