Many authors agree in pointing out the crucial role of teachers in educational innovation. This would also apply to the teachers’ role in CLIL contexts. CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning and it can be defined as “a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language” (Coyle et al., 2010: 1).

CLIL is identified as a priority area by the European Commission. In the key document “Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004 – 2006”, CLIL is acknowledged to have “a major contribution to make to the Union’s language goals” (Commission of the European Communities, 2003: 8). Several European institutions have highlighted the effectiveness of CLIL to improve not only language competence but also to build intercultural communication skills, which is considered to be essential for mobility, employment and social inclusion in a globalised society. This is the reason why the European Union has supported different projects and studies about CLIL, including the development of a European Network.

"The Changing European Classroom - the Potential of Plurilingual Education," a European Symposium held in March 2005, insisted on the necessity that learners receive CLIL education across different educational levels. Attention was also called to the fact that CLIL Teachers should be offered specific training in CLIL. It is relevant, therefore, to examine how CLIL teachers’ skills and attitudes are developed in teacher education programmes.

Across Europe we can find different courses, programmes and modules designed to develop the required competences for CLIL teaching. One of these is the "U-TEAch" programme, a one-year Master’s in Education degree for graduate students willing to become CLIL secondary teachers, with a specific focus on teaching their subject in bilingual and international contexts. This programme is offered by the "Center for Teaching and Learning" at Utrecht University (the Netherlands).

This paper aims to present the results of a case study carried out to gain insight into the appreciation of the CLIL-specific modules of the “U-TEAch” programme. The overarching goal of the project is to analyse the main factors involved in the pre-service CLIL teacher professional learning process. Specifically, the research questions to be addressed are: 1) What are the CLIL pre-service teacher gains and challenges as perceived by learners, teachers and mentors? 2) Which successful CLIL practices, as identified by learners, teachers and mentors, can be transferred to the European context?

The theoretical framework behind this study rests on socio-constructivist theory, which establishes that knowledge cannot be transmitted but constructed upon prior knowledge through a social dialogue. It we apply this theory to teacher education, we should understand pre-service teacher professional learning as a knowledge building process which takes place thanks to the interaction with different stakeholders, i.e. mentors, lecturers, pupils and peers.

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