Wherever we are located in the world, COVID-19 continues to have a profound impact on our societies and lives. Lockdown is one experience widely shared globally. This has resulted in sudden closure of schools, and educators striving to find ways to support students online, through TV or radio, and sometimes through delivery of food and printed material to students homes.

For educators it has involved a sudden and steep learning curve in designing and managing non-physical-presence teaching and learning.

Even though some of us have been successful in transitioning from physical-presence teaching to online, reports from different countries during March-September 2020 reveal that the experience of remote schooling is leaving many students in difficulty or even stranded.

If education was not good before COVID-19, it cannot transition effectively as online learning. However if teaching quality has been high quality, and if students have access to online resources, much can be achieved.

Successful transition often requires profound changes in navigation of learning pathways, and structuring of learning processes. Now that the extent of the problem is being recognized effective pedagogies will soon emerge.

NEXUS 2020-2025 is a new generation expert team exploring pedagogical methods that enable successful development of global competences through a fusion of subject and language learning. Involving people of all ages NEXUS aims to show how specific teaching activities can support learning outcomes according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 Global Competence descriptors.

Today, disruptive learning calls for disruptive technologies. Combining augmented and virtual reality to produce powerful and safe CLIL learning environments has been a dream for bilingual education teachers for over a decade. Now it is increasingly within reach with iCLIL where knowledge and competence-building go hand-in-hand with dynamic immersive learning experiences.

Global Positioning Generation Z (GPZ) is a CLIL-based learning resource for developing global competences. It enables young people (16-18 yrs) to look at how to make the environment a better place. Essentially asking ‘what is your position as a Generation Z global citizen (born 1995-2015) towards climate change?’ the resources focus on knowledge, attitudes, values and skills in developing environmental awareness and identifying opportunities for action.

Published in 2019, IMPLEMENTING INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ACADEMIA: Teaching Learning Research through English is now available. It is intended for academics and higher education personnel engaged in processes involving adoption of teaching and learning in English as an additional language.

Access the full report here: https://riudg.udg.mx/handle/20.500.12104/79771

Ten years ago, a European Commission study ‘Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity’ (Marsh, 2009) examined the potential for links between knowledge of languages and enhanced cognitive ability. The scientific meta-study reported that knowing more than one language generates a higher number of neuronal connections and stimulates multiple neuronal webs, both intra- and inter-hemispheric, which can lead to a higher capacity for generating new (creative and innovative) processes.

Knowledge of more than one language was also found to be linked to enhanced learning, problem-solving and communication competences – all of which are fundamental 21st century transversal skills.

International Schools’ 2019 Bilingual Education Summit provided insight on how much can be achieved for young people, families and societies if opportunities are available to experience quality teaching and learning in more than one language.

After a successful 2-year trial period of Pheno-CLIL with High School students in Mexico, a prototype has been designed for younger learners.

Pheno-CLIL is a signature pedagogy for teaching subjects in English. It combines two complementary across-the-curriculum methods: Phenomenon-based Learning (PhBL) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).

PhBL develops systems-thinking (seeing patterns in information and problem-solving) where
students learn a single topic from different inter-disciplinary perspectives.

CLIL develops language and content simultaneously. Described as the ultimate language teaching methodology by the late David Graddol, it has become the most significant change agent in English language education globally over the past two decades.

The role of the first language when teaching through English as an additional language.  A powerful argument for dual language environments when English is introduced as the medium of instruction. Authored by Hamish Chalmers with input from Eithne Gallagher, David Marsh, Victoria Murphy, Patsy Lightbown, and Nina Spada. Published 2019, Oxford University Press.

Get your copy here: https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/expert/thank_you?cc=fi&selLanguage=en

One key takeaway is why educational expertise in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan is re-examining how undue stress undermines the physical and mental health of young people, and why New Generation Schools place human wellbeing at the heart of curricular operations.

The Guadalajara Colloquium on Internationalizing Implementation of Academia was held in Mexico October 2018, with input from expertise in Colombia, Finland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, South Korea and Spain. Reporting shortly through a Shape Paper on teaching in higher education through an additional language, the colloquium identified two key development issues – Which models? Which competences to successfully assure quality?