Collaboration and CLIL LOTE transitions
Why should transitions in CLIL LOTE be supported through collaboration between students, teachers and/or institutions at different educational levels – what is the added value?
Collaboration supports the continuity of educational pathways and smoother discontinuity in transitions between different educational levels. Collaboration supports professionals working in this area and this mutual support can be extremely important because CLIL LOTE contexts may be in weaker position than CLIL English-programs. There may, for example, be unfavourable organizational factors, such as lack of time, geographical distance between primary and secondary schools, a lack of professionally prepared staff or reduced support at one of the schools involved, either from staff or parents. Collaboration is needed in terms of pedagogical and methodological transitions, to ensure appropriate linguistic support and the need to cope with new curricular requirements. From a student perspective,
Chambers (2020, p. 80)Gary N. Chambers (2020).
What Pupils Say about Transition (KS2–3) and What This Might Mean for CLIL. In: K. Bower et al. Curriculum Integrated Language Teaching. CLIL in Practice. Cambridge University Press, p. 63-92.
emphasizes: ‘If a smoother, more informed transition is to be experienced by pupils, communication and collaboration between primary and secondary schools are the key.” In order to make the necessary discontinuity an opportunity for development, it is crucial to invest in collaboration between a range of different stakeholders.
This section explores the added value of different forms of collaboration to ensure continuity within CLIL LOTE programs and to map the challenges that students identify as affecting their CLIL LOTE transitions.