Maja Resner, Senior Lecturer, Head of the Learning and Teaching Support Centre and teacher of English and German, participated in a professional development mobility programme at the Atlas Language School in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, from 31 August to 5 September 2026
The mobility took place in Dublin, where participants attended the intensive ‘Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching’ course designed for language teachers wishing to expand their methodological toolkit and explore a range of innovative approaches to teaching. A total of six teachers from various European countries participated in the course. This small yet cohesive group spent their mornings learning about typical Irish expressions and pronunciation, practicing the Task-Based and Task-Teach-Task teaching methods using real-world examples, and discussing topics such as teaching grammar, correcting spoken errors, working with video and AI in the classroom, and generally comparing their best teaching practices.
The course also featured an extensive afternoon social programme, during which participants explored Dublin’s rich history and culture, visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the interactive EPIC Museum dedicated to Irish emigration, and spent a day on an excursion to the typical fishing village of Howth. During a city tour one afternoon the teachers tried their hand at storytelling, where they shared tales of heroines from Irish history, which was an activity that was successfully piloted with this very group.
By participating in this Erasmus+ mobility programme, our colleague acquired new knowledge and skills which will undoubtedly contribute to more engaging and interactive foreign language instruction at VUAS. She gained a deeper understanding of Irish culture and experienced the Irish way of life and speech firsthand in a multicultural setting, while also establishing contacts and exchanging experiences with both Paddy, her Atlas instructor, and her colleagues from Italy, Austria, and Poland, thereby creating opportunities for future international cooperation.
Participation in this mobility activity was funded under the Erasmus+ programme, which supports the professional development of staff, international cooperation, and the exchange of best practices among educational institutions across Europe.
Virovitica University of Applied Sciences
