The University of Florence is the winner of the European recognition eTwinning ITE Award as ITE Institution of the Year 2022.

eTwinning for Future Teachers – Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is an initiative launched by the European Commission and the Central Unit of eTwinning which, by bringing together initial teacher education institutions from member countries, aims to include the eTwinning experience within the training activities for prospective teachers. ITE offers students (future teachers) and their trainers the opportunity to concretely experience European collaboration, benefiting from an international community of professionals who experiment with innovative pedagogical methodologies.

The ITE Award identifies, celebrates and promotes the work and activities that participating universities have conducted in three main areas: curriculum integration, project implementation and research outcomes.

During the award ceremony, a video was shown with the speeches of Raffaella Biagioli, professor of general and social pedagogy, of the university tutors Laura Innocenti and Ilaria Giachi and of some female students; subsequently, the three areas that led to this recognition were presented in detail.

“We are very proud to have achieved this prestigious European recognition – explains Raffaella Biagioli, professor of general and social pedagogy -. It is the reward for the commitment that our university made ten years ago when we joined the experimentation of the Teacher Training Institution, which later became Initial Teacher Education. This result is due to a group of teachers, in particular Maria Ranieri and Francesca Mancini who, together with university tutors, saw in eTwinning planning the ideal interpretation of the internationalization dimension, and a significant opportunity for the development of digital, methodological, linguistic and intercultural competences”.

A total of 30 universities in Italy participated in the call for participation for the European recognition ITE AWARD 2022. The national evaluation of the applications was conducted by the National eTwinning Unit and announced at the end of October, with the University of Florence obtaining the highest score in three areas: Integration of eTwinning into the curriculum; Development and implementation of eTwinning projects; Research results relating to eTwinning.

All information on the “eTwinning for Future Teachers – ITE” initiative >>