The Peers project -: Integrated Music Education to Foster Professional Identity within the Framework of the Laurea Learning by Developing model

The current paper focuses on students’ professional development, as supported by the Laurea Learning-by-Developing (LbD) model, within an international exchange project. PEERS (Projet d’Etudiants et d’Enseignants chercheurs en Réseaux Sociaux [Project for students and teachers collaborating in research with the support of social media]), to which Laurea was invited by the University of Teacher Education, HEP Vaud Lausanne, Switzerland , gave us the framework to implement a new research-oriented learning task in the professional trai-ning. The core idea of PEERS is the alternation of two periods of exchange, supported by dis-tant collaborative learning environments based on a research task. Three kindergarten (social service’s / primary school teacher students and two teachers from each institution partici-pated in the project from 2015 to 2016, with the especially chosen theme of “Music education, creativity and self-esteem”. In this paper, the practical measures required to implement the project and discuss the outco-mes within the LbD model are described. The Laurea LbD model, with the theories and expe-riences, support us in the analysis and the results, pointing out the effects of the project in regard to the growth of the professional development of the students. Changes in the students’ understanding of theoretical concepts and professional practice could be observed. By taking into account the international dimension as a specificity of PEERS, it appears that intercultu-ral exchange within a long-term collaboration creates added value for the teacher/socionom students’ professional identity.