A special project at the Institute of Educational Sciences has brought a splash of colour to everyday life at a number of primary schools in the Oldenburg area this summer semester – and given some students their first taste of practical experience. The ‘Primary School of the Future’ project focuses on community spirit, sustainability and creativity.

“This is really fun,” exclaims Janne cheerfully. The Year 2 pupil and her friend Paulina are wearing smocks, holding thick paintbrushes and are covered in paint. Together with three other children, they form the ‘Kunterbunt Group’ and are in charge of decorating two table tennis tables in the school playground at Osterscheps Primary School. Supported by two teacher-trainee students from the university, they are carefully painting large white dots onto the already bright yellow table – the squares of a Ludo game. “The tables looked rather dreary before, and nobody ever played table tennis on them anyway,” reports Hille Schröder, class teacher of Class 2b, to which Janne and Paulina belong. That’s why the children suggested that the tables could be used for other games.

Schröder’s ‘Mouse Class’ is also busy in other ways this week at the end of May, making the school a more colourful place. Under the guidance of ten university students, the pupils are working enthusiastically on several projects. Some of the boys are painting white lines on the school playground, which will soon form the roads of a go-kart circuit. Another group is making the accompanying road signs, whilst a further team has painted five large wooden panels with imaginative scenes to decorate a steel tube barrier at the bus stop. In addition, several hopscotch games are being created on a concrete area in front of the school.

The activities at Osterscheps Primary School in Ammerland are part of a special initiative by the Institute of Educational Sciences: the ‘Primary School of the Future’ project, led by Dr Juliane Schlesier, is testing the ‘learning through engagement’ teaching and learning method. A total of around 250 primary school pupils from four primary schools are taking part – as well as 80 teacher-training students from the university, mainly from the second semester, who have enrolled on Schlesier’s seminar as part of the ‘Teaching and Learning’ module.

Practical experience as early as the second semester

The project, which receives financial support from the Barthel Foundation as the main sponsor and the EWE Foundation, has three objectives: firstly, the primary schools and the children involved are to benefit directly from the projects implemented; secondly, students are given the opportunity to gain their first practical experience at an early stage. Thirdly, Schlesier is collecting data to examine how learning through engagement affects the pupils’ social skills, personal development and writing skills. The project leader is a research assistant in the Empirical Teaching and Learning Research group headed by Prof. Dr Barbara Moschner. Researchers from the University of Greifswald, the University of Hamburg and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg are also involved in her study.

“The research community is in rare agreement that this method has only positive effects, but this has not yet been systematically investigated in primary schools,” says Schlesier, who personally supervises all project days at the four schools. “Learning through engagement” is a concept that originated in the USA, where it is known as “service learning”. The method aims to combine a commitment to the common good – whether in the social, environmental, cultural or political sphere – with subject-specific learning.

Even weeding is fun

It is easy to see at Osterscheps Primary School that this combination is well received. “Children, parents, the students – everyone is thrilled,” reports teacher Hille Schröder, who herself radiates great enthusiasm. She attributes the pupils’ strong motivation to the fact that they can plan the projects themselves and shape their own environment. “They even enjoy doing things that aren’t actually that appealing, such as weeding at the bus stop,” she explains. Or they find enjoyment in activities they previously disliked – like Janne, who doesn’t usually like painting but is taking part with great enthusiasm today. “The children learn without even realising it,” the teacher is convinced.

Schlesier emphasises that academic learning is not neglected either: “The children read instructions, write plans and take notes in a learning diary – this is how they acquire reading and writing skills in a playful way.” At the end, all the groups present their results with posters and, in some cases, even films at a closing ceremony, which parents are also welcome to attend.

The fact that everything runs so smoothly in Osterscheps is also down to the ten students who spend a week working on the projects with the children every day. “The students put a lot of thought into it beforehand and did a great deal of organisational preparation,” says Schlesier. Many chose the seminar because of the opportunity to get a taste of real-world experience. Take Ineke Klaaßen, for example, who is studying to become a teacher of special educational needs and elementary mathematics: “I really love working with the children,” she says. For Lukas Rau, who is studying elementary mathematics and Protestant religious education, the experience at the school has also been a real benefit. After four days amidst the hustle and bustle of the school playground, he is now certain: “I definitely want to become a primary school teacher.”

The students are quickly settling into their roles as teachers

Dr Juliane Schlesier

Educational researcher and lecturer Schlesier believes it is extremely important to incorporate more practical elements into teacher training – a goal to which the University of Oldenburg is generally committed. “Prospective teachers receive an excellent theoretical education during their degree, but the reality of school life is often quite different,” she observes. During their teaching placement, they often experience a ‘shock’ at the reality of the job – which is likely one of the reasons for the high drop-out rate during the preparatory service, which, according to a study by the Stifterverband, stands at between ten and 15 per cent.

Schlesier first carried out a project similar to the one now underway in the Oldenburg area two years ago, whilst she was a visiting professor at the University of Greifswald. There, she found that students benefit greatly from early practical experience. “Most are initially unsure when they meet the children for the first time, but they quickly grow into the role of teacher,” she explains. She attaches particular importance to students being able to process and reflect on their experiences afterwards in a seminar. In this way, they learn strategies at an early stage that will help them cope better with stressful situations in their future working lives.

Insights into everyday life as a teacher

Lukas Rau and Ineke Klaaßen soon realised that everyday life as a teacher requires flexibility and resilience to stress. “It’s definitely exhausting,” admits Rau. “Our planning was a bit too vague at first, which caused us to run into time problems,” reports Klaaßen. However, they were able to improve this by clarifying the division of roles. On one occasion, the weather also threw a spanner in the works for the pair. “Because it suddenly started raining, we had to move the children from the school playground to the sports hall at short notice and quickly think of something to do there,” explains the student. The solution: they turned the obstacle course theme into an activity using building blocks and toy cars.

However great the general enthusiasm for the project may be, Schlesier emphasises that in order to incorporate similar seminars into teacher training as standard, the scope would probably have to be scaled back. “It only works because everyone involved is particularly committed – not just the children and teachers at the schools, but also the students, my student assistants Lilith Rothmund and Daniela Eckhoff, and myself as the lecturer,” says the education researcher. Ultimately, however, motivation is the driving force for everyone: “So far, all the students have always turned up; no one has ever been late for a session, even though attendance isn’t compulsory,” she reports. When a project at one school was in danger of not being completed within the set timeframe, some students even turned up at the weekend – voluntarily, as Schlesier emphasises .