Córdoba workshop retrospective

The second workshop of the CLIL4ALL project took place at the University of Córdoba (Córdoba, Spain) on November 8 and 10, 2023. The main purpose of this meeting was to continue advancing in the project objectives and to share the work that the different groups were doing in relation to the different Workpackages. More specifically, this meeting also served to deepen the knowledge of the mechanisms inherent to the implementation of CLIL in higher education, especially regarding the teaching work of the faculty and how through collaboration between content specialists and foreign language specialists’ tangible benefits can be obtained to improve the efficiency of this model. During the meeting three focuses of attention were discussed in greater depth:

1.   Project management. To this end, the project coordinator made a detailed report on where we were with respect to the objectives set, the financial situation and future activities (events, meetings and products).

2.   Fulfillment of the workpackages. Each of the coordinators of the different workpackages explained where each one of them was at the present time. Of note was the presentation made by the representatives of the University of Karelia and the University of Han on the implementation of the pilot experiences, the description of the work related to the systematic review by the University of Córdoba and the presentation of the training activity with the students to be carried out at the University of St. Etienne.

3.   Training activities. The main training activity was given by Professor Emma Dafouz of the Complutense University of Madrid, who gave a talk entitled Exploring Teacher Professional Development in Bilingual Education: A Multidimensional Perspective, in which she presented a multidimensional perspective can help teachers, curriculum developers and educational authorities take informed choices and develop agency when designing professional development programs in different bilingual/EMI/CLIL educational settings. In addition to this proposal, other members of the project, specifically from Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau and the University of Cordoba, particularly addressed in several separate presentations the challenges and difficulties associated with establishing a collaboration model between content and foreign language specialists, presenting various solutions and ways to structure such a beneficial collaboration.

As additional information, it should be noted that the members of the project had the opportunity to go on a sightseeing tour of the historic area of Cordoba, make a night visit to the Mosque-Cathedral and taste the local gastronomy.