Constructionism in Action within European eTwinning Projects

Theoretical Background

Anne Gilleran (2010) – Head of the Central Support Service of eTwinning – stated that when European Schoolnet answered the European Commission’s call in 2004, the aim of the programme was perceived as a means of empowering learners through technology. Thus, originally it is rooted in practice rather than in theory. However, whilst looking at the activities from the perspectives of pedagogical and methodological theories, it turns out that various theoretical approaches interrelate in eTwinning projects, despite the fact that teaching practitioners’ focus is on tasks suitable for the needs of their learners, not especially on implementation of any theory. In the process of explaining the phenomenon, two sets of theoretical approaches are of particular interest. The first one is constructionism with its precedents – Vygotskian social constructivism and Piagetian cognitive constructivism. The second set of approaches comes from the methodology of teaching foreign languages, namely the communicative approach, which is task-based, project-based and co-operative language learning. The third argument that is worth mentioning in the analysis of the learning environment within the eTwinning programme comes from policy makers who have adopted key competences as the basis for education of the future.