On-line learning environments and participatory health education: teachers' reflections

This study examines teachers' experiences with and opinions on a web-based, cross-cultural project. Students from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Macedonia, and Sweden used information and communication technology and international collaboration to explore the links among youth, culture, and the use of alcohol. The data was generated through interviews with the teachers co-ordinating the project in each of the classes. The teachers' experiences with the approach as a whole led them to emphasize that the action-oriented and participatory approach, combined with the use of information and communication technology and international collaboration, brought new, valuable perspectives to their own teaching and to their reflections about emerging new roles and teaching skills needed. The provisions for genuine student participation, authenticity in learning, intrinsic motivation, and the sense of the other were identified by the teachers as the main strengths of the approach.