Discovery of One's Own and the Other's Work Environment Through an Intercultural Career Guidance Virtual System

Abstract

Not many references can be found in specialized literature on professional guidance from an intercultural viewpoint. Besides, to the best of our knowledge, it has not been approached from ITC and the Internet. Thus, the present research was aimed at attaining better understanding of the professions in the immediate environment of students in third year of primary education, from which an extract was chosen to illustrate the present paper. All in all, 435 students from six different countries took part in this project, interacting with one another and working in twinned teams of three pupils by means of a virtual learning environment (an educational platform) created ad hoc. Materials are interactive and, therefore, favour cooperative learning. Likewise, some communicative tools such as a social network are integrated into the platform. Our research follows qualitative methodology based on both the analysis of all completed work and a final portfolio. The obtained results and conclusions clearly prove that students improve their knowledge of other cultures after contact with their twinned mates, while simultaneously improve their knowledge of themselves and their own environment so as to make it known to their mates. The participating students’ analyses of their teachers’, parents’ and close relatives’ professions are remarkable.