Physical mobilies Physical mobilities are implemented for students and teachers through various programmes. Students can take part in an internship or study abroad or they can participate in shorter excursions as part of their courses and thus gain international and intercultural experience. The participation for lectures is supported in international conferences, thematically oriented Erasmus+ Staff Weeks and Teaching Mobilities and further training such as the Valiant-Project “Virtual Exchange on Diversity and inclusion in our primary classrooms”. Furthermore, mobilities of colleagues from partner universities to the Institute of Primary Education Research are realised. For instance, within the framework of the successful acquisition of the DAAD guest lectureship of Dr. Krisztina Kovacs, international aspects of elementary education could be introduced into research and teaching at the Institute of Primary Education Research. Further short-term mobilities of lecturers, who come to the Institute of Primary Education Research, and lectureships enrich the teaching programme and offer points of contact for joint research activities. Likewise, face-to-face teaching is linked with established offers of virtual mobility (see below), such as the Online Facilitated Dialogue by Solya. Internationalisation at home in higher education Yet there are numerous barriers for student teachers to complete trips abroad (Wernisch 2016, pp. 275–302, DAAD/DZHW 2019, pp. 92–94), which is why mobility figures for student teachers, in particular those studying primary education, are comparatively low in Germany and throughout Europe (DAAD/DZHW 2019, p. 93). Besides the traditional forms of studying abroad and short-time stays abroad for internships, there is therefore ever-increasing focus on internationalisation at home. This is about integrating international and intercultural aspects in content and methodology including virtual exchange. In the teaching degree programme there are for instance courses in English that address aspects of primary school pedagogy and didactics in an international comparison. On the one hand, this is a thematic extension for students at FAU, and on the other hand, it is an opportunity for exchange students from abroad to attend internationally oriented courses in English. The Institute of Primary Education Research also offers virtual exchange courses. For example students at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and students at the University of Latvia collaborate on various topics during the Virtual Exchange “Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison”. The course provides an overview of primary education in an international comparison. In addition to the education systems, students will investigate the basics of teaching and learning as well as assessment at primary schools. Focus is placed on online collaboration in small groups of usually 6 students (3 from Germany and 3 of Latvia); students tackle tasks together and their country-specific perspective is considered during discussions. They will work on assignments, gaining experiences from working in an international team while reflecting on similarities and differences within the education systems. The project offers the opportunity to gain international experience through virtual exchange, thereby enhancing intercultural, digital-pedagogical, and linguistic competences (The Evaluate Group 2019, pp. 25–62). The course "Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison" is a best practice example of innovative e-learning at FAU. In addition to these internationalisation activities, there is the opportunity to participate in virtual international conferences for students and lecturers and in the regularly held International Week in Teacher Education. Internationalisation at home in research Accompanying research “Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison” The course (see above) “Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison” is continuously evaluated and further developed. The following experiences of students and lecturers have been made so far: All project participants benefited greatly from course planning and implementation. Lecturers could track the learning experiences of students as they collaborated across university boundaries. To name an example, there were weekly project meetings during the seminar. In these meetings, the participants reflected on the previous sessions, updated the upcoming sessions, and finalised the planning. Essentially, the most important results of the EVALUATE Project (Evaluating the Impact of Virtual Exchange on Initial Teacher Education) could be confirmed from the perspective of the lecturers:- · Virtual exchange acts as a driver for innovation and international learning in the university classroom · Virtual exchange is a complex learning activity which requires integration into a formal educational framework as well as guidance from educators · The success of virtual exchange depends on person-to-person engagement The course is being evaluated on a regular basis in a qualitative and quantitative manner, adopting the perspective of the students and using a classic pretest-posttest design. Selected instruments are used, which were also used in the EVALUATE Project. On the whole, students showed so far, a noticeable increase in competence on the following variables: · Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) · Intercultural Communicative Competence. Accompanying research for the project “Teacher Education International: “International Dimensions in the Primary School Teacher Training Programme” International and intercultural experiences are highly relevant for the profession of student teachers (multicultural student body, internationalisation of curricula and internationalization of school organisation). Teacher education with an international orientation should therefore develop the following competences: competences for teaching in multicultural classes, foreign language competence, reflection competence of own systems and procedures and international orientation (Wernisch 2017, p. 8-9). Several of these personal and general competences can be acquired through stays abroad (Baedorf 2015, pp. 40-44). However, there are numerous obstacles for student teachers to realise a stay abroad (Baedorf 2015, pp. 45-47; Wernisch 2017, pp. 9-11, Wernisch 2016, pp. 275-302, DAAD 2019, pp. 92-94), which is why the mobility figures for student teachers and in particular for students of teaching at primary schools in Germany are comparatively low (DAAD 2019, p. 93). In order to increase the mobility figures for student teachers, the Institute of Primary Education Research applied with other units for the DAAD project “Lehramt International” (Teacher Education International) and has since then successfully participated in this project. This project aims to strengthen the international dimension in the teaching degree programme. In addition to promoting international mobility for students, the project also organises international weeks for students and lecturers. Within the framework of the project, various aspects of internationalisation in the teaching degree programme for primary school teachers will be assessed on a longitudinal basis: Question: How do students' attitudes, knowledge, interest, motivation and obstacles with regard to international experiences develop during their studies? Sample: 400 students of primary school teaching. Study design: longitudinal with three measurement points Time of measurement: Start of study (November 2019), end of second semester (July 2020), end of study (November 2023). Central variables are surveyed with adapted instruments according to Wernisch (2016). · Students’ perspective on attitudes towards the importance of international experiences for primary school teachers · Knowledge about opportunities to gain international experience abroad and at home · Interest in gaining international experience abroad and at home as part of their studies · Motivation to gain international experience abroad and at home during their studies · Obstacles to gaining international experience abroad and at home as part of their studies Resources • Baedorf, Dominik (2015). Empirische Befunde zur Internationalisierung der LehrerInnenbildung. In Meike Krike & Louisia Kürten (Eds.): Internationalisierung der LehrerInnenbildung (p. 32-56). Waxmann-Verlag. • Baroni, Alice; Dooly, Melinda; Garcés García, Pilar; Guth, Sarah; Hauck, Mirjam; Helm, Francesca; Lewis, Tim; Mueller-Hartmann, Andreas; O’Dowd, Robert; Rienties, Bart; Rogaten, Jekaterina (2019). Evaluating the impact of virtual exchange on initial teacher education: a European policy experiment. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.29.9782490057337 • DAAD/DZHW (2019). Wissenschaft weltoffen. Daten und Fakten zur Internationalität von Studium und Forschung in Deutschland. Wbv Media Bielefeld. • Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (Ed.) (2018). Internationalisierung zu Hause in der Lehrerbildung. Bonn. • Wernisch, Diana (2016). Internationalization and Student Mobility in Teacher Education: Internationalization Models, Diffusion Barriers and Recommendations for Policy and Higher Education Institutions (Doctoral thesis, University of Freiburg, Germany). Retrieved from https://phfr.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/651 • Wernisch, Diana (2017). Diskrepanz zwischen Interesse und Realisation von Auslandsaufenthalten im Lehramtsstudium - In ZEP: Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik, 40 (4), p. 8-12. | 
