Integrating the Global Competence with Telecollaboration in CLIL Teacher Training

Global competence will define learning for decades to come as it encompasses basic life skills. However, there is a lack of data in current academic research on the assessment and integration of this competence in teacher training with current educational technology. Thus, this project had a dual purpose: On the one hand, it aimed to examine the global competence of different groups of student teachers through the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) following a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach. On the other, researchers aimed to determine optimal methods for the improvement and integration of this necessary competence in the curriculum. The project was developed with the collaboration of pre-service and in-service teachers enrolled in various master's programs at two European universities in Spain and Belgium. The research was carried out following a pre-test / post-test type design with various assessment instruments based on the OECD (2018) global competence framework. The quantitative analyses showed that, by integrating the SDGs when teaching contents, the participants improved in various domains of Global Competence (adaptability, openness to diversity, perspective taking), but also decreased in other areas (ability to interact in a multicultural world, respect for other cultures, ability to adopt another culture). The qualitative research showed that among the main educational technology examined, telecollaboration can optimise at least five dimensions of Global Competence. Despite the small size of the sample and the complexity of evaluating this competence, this study contributes to educational innovation by presenting didactic telecollaborative proposals and a theoretical framework for the integration and appraisal of Global Competence in (future) educators.