Swiss Insights into Teacher Education: Guest Lecture by Dr. Laura Loder Buechel

On 11 November 2026, bachelor’s students of the programmes “Secondary Education (English Language and World Literature)” and “Philology (Germanic Languages and Literatures, English and German)”, along with master’s students of “Secondary Education (English Language and World Literature)” and their teachers, attended the online guest lecture “Teacher Education in Switzerland: From University Preparation to ELT Practices”. It was given by Dr. Laura Loder Buechel, lecturer at the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zürich).

The session took place on Zoom in English and brought together about a hundred participants. The speaker explained how future teachers are trained in Switzerland and how a country with four national languages and 26 cantons, each with its own language policy, organises language learning at school. Participants learned that since 2006 Swiss pupils have been required to study another national language and English. Dr. Loder Buechel also talked about current debates on French in primary school and on assessing pupils’ language skills, showed work by Swiss schoolchildren and introduced Babylonia, a professional journal on language teaching.

Her practical advice proved especially valuable. On an interactive Padlet board, she gathered approaches to teaching and assessing vocabulary, classroom games and digital tools for the lesson. After the input, participants worked in small groups and then competed in a “Switzerland!” quiz on Blooket, seeing first-hand how gamification brings a lesson to life. The meeting ended with a lively discussion, and the speaker’s openness and energy created a warm, friendly atmosphere.

For our students, the lecture was an invaluable experience: a chance to look into European teaching practice, talk in English with a lecturer from a foreign university of teacher education and add new ideas to their teaching toolkit. We sincerely thank Dr. Laura Loder Buechel for the inspiration!