During the job shadowing period in Caserta the participants acquired a further knowledge of the educational system in Italy, knowledge of the structure of administration of a large institute of upper secondary education, elementary knowledge of resources (human, economic, facilities) alloted to education, knowledge of local and national curricula in different subjects, knowledge of international programmes and projects and networking in general. Their skills in e-learning improved by finding and using new tools available when preparing material and demostrating Finnish education system to the Italian students and teachers. As to attitudes, the participants found that networking and internationalization concern each and every one of us and all the subjects in our school.

Then there were aspects that turned out to be of personal interest: The comparison between the contents of philosophy books in Finland and Italy as well as other material used in the classrooms. The cultural differences, social norms, interaction between teachers and pupils. The different teacher personalities. Comparison between the issues that we take for granted in our school but are differently organized in our target school. For example lack of breaks between the lessons in Italy.

Or, this is how another teacher put it: This job shadowing project inspired him to take a good look at his 30-odd- year career as a teacher of English and French in Finland. To put it briefly, he does need to highlight the fact that the Finnish education system has tried, at least, to keep abreast with the changing times; new curricula with modern methods at regular intervals.

In his opinion the choices Finland has made over the years seem to be far more student-friendly and motivating than he has realized: the general attitude to students, work in pairs and small groups, well- chosen native books and material addressing young Finns instead of borrowing material from abroad. Besides, our administrative choices consider young students better than many foreign systems: good facilities, both compulsory and voluntary studies, proper breaks, meals according to each and every one of our students’ needs. He has to admit that he never got a clear picture of the local educational system or curriculum in Italy.

Personally, he relearnt to use his knowledge of Italian during his stay in Caserta, Italy. As short a period as seven days was long enough to activate long forgotten language skills of the other two teachers as well, studies of Latin proved invaluable when understanding spoken and written Italian.