PEERS Programme

Haute école pédagogiquedu canton de Vaud Research & Developmentand National & International Relationships Units

Haute école pédagogiquedu canton de VaudAvenue de Cour 331014 Lausannewww.hepl.ch

Working out an international pedagogical project by alternating the phases : face to face and distance learning with peers who live on the other side of the world. This is the innovative initiative put forward to the students and the resear-chers of HEP Vaud in the framework of the PEERS programme. Ed

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Reasearch & Development andNational & International Relationshipis Unitsrd-rni@hepl.ch www.hepl.ch/peers

PEERS Student & researcher social networks projects

An essential opening to the world HEP Vaud has an important strategic place in the national and inter-national field of teacher training. It creates privileged relations with numerous academic partners in Switzerland, in Europe and in the rest of the world in order to nurture its academic quality and research. Promoting its opening to the world is a never ending task. It is for this reason that HEP Vaud encourages international mobility to both trainers and students. HEP Vaud at the forefrontHEP Vaud is a teaching institute at the forefront of the most recent developments in the teaching professions. Linking with various Swiss and foreign academic partners, it never ceases to consolidate its international research network. In this spirit of open-mindedness, which is one of its prime values, HEP Vaud is developing its ties with numerous partners and is piloting or co-piloting innovating internatio-nal programmes such as PEERS.

Broadening the academic horizonOne of the challenges facing higher education institutes today, is creating processes which integrate an international and cultural dimension in educational research, and also in the service functions of the institutes themselves. Indeed, it is the development of an inter-national and intercultural framework which guarantees the broade-ning of the academic horizon and the continuous improvement of the quality and international standards of the research and courses.

PEERS, new key factor in internationalisation As student and researcher projects in social networks, the PEERS programme finds its place at the heart of this academic broadening logic. Its project managers are the Research & Development and Na-tional & International Relations Units of HEP Vaud, with the support of the Board of higher Education of Canton de Vaud (DGES). Its aim is to make students and HEP Vaud researchers and their foreign partners collaborate on educational themes. Each team is led by a trainer from each institute partaking in the project. These common projects can produce linked research and create favourable conditions furthering future research with the partner institution.

Four major themes PEERS operates in four thematic fields at present :

— cultural diversity culture and language, bilingualism, literacy. — sustainable development through the promotion of environ-

mental protection and improved living conditions which mediate interdisciplinary research in biology, sociology, geography and anthropology.

— fighting school absenteeism and deschooling absenteeism and segregation and the answers community responses and educa-tional alliances bring.

— improving teaching practice sequences notably with the « lesson-study approach » which allows small groups of teachers to plan, concretise, observe and regulate their teaching activi-ties.

PEERS, from the network to the field Supervised by a researcher from each institution, the students create a common project communicating via Skype, social networks and other collaborative on-line plaforms. Then the project has to be concretised in the field. On the other hand, the researchers are expected to collaborate on common research themes, often linked with the students’project themes.

PEERS projects 2011-2012 PEERS with San Diego State University Two groups of three students from HEP Vaud and San Diego State University jointly study both the Swiss and US education systems in the ways they treat the linguistic needs of allophone students of various cultures. The students thus conduct a project in two particu-lar contexts : language classes in the Canton de Vaud system and bilingual education in the public system of California.

PEERS with Simón Patiño University at Cochabamba in Bolivia A team of three MSc and Educational Practices (MASPE) students collaborate with three Environmental Science students from Simón Patiño University at Cochabamba (USIP). Together they organise an educational campaign to improve the living conditions of farming

families of a Quechua village; preserve an endangered ecosystem due to over-exploitation of the Andean forests caused by using wood for heating purposes. As for the researchers, they elaboratea research-action project linked to the students’ project.

PEERS with Lesley University at Boston The collaboration between HEP Vaud students and their counterparts from Lesley University turns towards urban ecology teaching. This collaborative work uncovers the need to redefine urban ecology in the light of differentiated concepts : the American students are above all focused on water and biodiversity, whereas for the Swiss students pollution and social mix are the most pertinent criteria. It is therefore necessary to understand, and agree with one another in order to realise a common didactic sequence. PEERS with Humbolt University at Arcata in California Two students from HEP Vaud have gone to California accompanied by a trainer. The project concentrates on the intercultural competencies of student teachers. The Swiss and American students together have created science lessons and elaborated efficient methods meant for a High School with many students having integration problems often linked to drugs. Another lesson has been realised at an Indian reser-vation. Many projects have resulted from these visits. One of them is themed « Teaching sciences to marginalised populations ». A lesson created in common with the American students has been given on both sides of the Atlantic and later analysed.

Picture : Victoria Ryjevskaya. HEP Vaud and Simón Patiño University staff and students in a Bolivian village class in the framework of the PEERS Programme

PEERS : another way of being international

From Lausanne to the United States and Bolivia