CAN CO-TEACHING AND BLENDED LEARNING COEXIST IN THE CORE CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS? - A PROJECT IN SPANISH AND HISPANO-AMERICAN CULTURE

The article discusses the use of blended learning and co-teaching in interdisciplinary fields in group activities at Greek secondary school level in an elective course. Three secondary school teachers from different fields (Biology & Spanish Language, English Language, Greek Language) cooperated to attain the goal of involving 46 students in learning through group activities the Spanish and Hispano-American culture employing ICT skills such as interactive whiteboards, blog and website. The project was based on the principles of collaborative teaching and learning cross-culturally involving interdisciplinary topics such as art, culture, history, sports, language, literature, geography, cuisine, music and cinema. Discovery learning was applied through students presentations and was further reinforced by our experiences in the educational trip to Madrid, Toledo and Segovia. The article recommends the adoption of co-teaching and blended learning in the core curriculum of secondary education as a means of acquiring and retaining knowledge in a creative way and argues for a shift towards the integration of student-student interaction and collaboration.