Some of the university's student teachers recently gained unconventional practical work experience when they accompanied young people from Rastede on their school's two-week "challenge project". Some things also turned out to be a challenge for the prospective teachers.
It is an unusual seminar group that meets on this sunny October day at the Institute of Educational Sciences, on the fourth floor with a view over the Haarentor campus. A very small group has come together, just eight or nine students, to talk to educational scientist Prof Dr Till-Sebastian Idel and teacher Kirstin Westerholt about - at first glance - at best peripheral educational topics. For example, they talk about particularly repair-intensive bicycle breakdowns, arguments when shopping in the supermarket or camping out when a thunderstorm threatens.
It is the conclusion of an unusual seminar. As part of the seminar, a total of ten students helped young people to develop and master a two-week challenge of their own choosing. A total of 55 ninth-graders from the Kooperative Gesamtschule (KGS) Rastede, where Westerholt teaches, took part in the pilot project supervised by the university. They had worked out plans for this school break during the eighth grade, which they put into practice at the start of the school year. In groups, they went on extended hikes or cycle tours, whether to Frankfurt am Main or to an East Frisian island, whether to the Netherlands or Denmark, doing charity work or exchanging items along the way.
From Idel's point of view, this is an opportunity not only for the 14 to 15-year-olds, whose self-reflection and personality development the "challenge project" was intended to serve. It is also a valuable building block for the professionalisation of the students who accompany them: "They gain educational experience outside the classroom and outside the school environment in a completely different way," says the university lecturer, who is responsible for the School Pedagogy and General Didactics department at the Institute and coordinates the interdisciplinary general school internships. "This is an irreplaceable experience".
The experience was certainly impressive for the students. "It was a completely different role for me, more of an observer and passive, while the young people took on the responsibility," says one student. "I was surprised at how 14 and 15-year-olds can motivate themselves and each other," reports another. "They once spent an hour trying to open a can without a can opener - and managed it in the end." And a fellow student remembers: "There were many challenges within the challenge, for example an argument in the supermarket that really escalated - it was difficult not to intervene." Another student realised that she "had to practise saying no".
For Idel, these descriptions get to the educational heart of the project and the accompanying university seminar. "Educational action is actually almost always intervening action," says the educational scientist. This unconventional practical contact, on the other hand, is about pulling yourself out and still being pedagogically active. "The participants are also challenged to reflect on this in their normal role at school for the future."
Neele Grätz is one of ten students who took part in the programme. The 24-year-old is studying music and Protestant religion in her third master's semester to become a teacher and accompanied a trio of girls to Groningen by bike and with tents in their luggage. She was curious to see "what 14-year-olds are like now". Although she was only ten years older, she had nevertheless noticed how interests and thoughts had changed during this time - and how quickly she had forgotten "that young people can do a lot on their own".
Giving them the freedom to utilise their skills is something she also wants to take to heart in her future academic appointment as a teacher. "I'm a fan of open, practice-oriented lessons anyway, where students find out a lot for themselves - that's probably easier to implement in the subject of music than in German or maths," says Neele. "The young people simply learn more when they work things out and discover things for themselves. I want to trust them even more in future than I already have." This sometimes leads to "real fireworks" in the pupils' development - "and I'm looking forward to that".
What she remembers most about the two-week road trip is the cohesion between the three girls. "The group worked so well that it seemed as if what they were doing was nothing new or exciting, but just normal," says Neele. When packing and planning the trip, the trio had thought of all the essentials, organised all the accommodation - whether a campsite or private property - in advance and only had to buy a washing-up sponge en route. Food supplies, the independent handling of the limited "travel budget", all this worked out perfectly. And when the rice still wasn't cooked after an hour on the gas cooker, the girls got tips from a neighbouring camping group.
This kind of social learning, including the chance to get to know themselves better, is what the challenge project opens up, says educationalist Idel. "And, of course, it's about pupils getting into borderline situations, perhaps even crossing boundaries and realising their own strengths and weaknesses." And all of this in a phase that is important for development - "in the middle of what we call puberty", says Idel.
He sees the reform pedagogical concept of the challenge project in the context of school development "away from subject lessons, towards weekly project days, for example, and towards greater individualisation of learning". However, establishing something like this requires additional work from teachers, at least initially.
At KGS Rastede, the preparatory work for the project - which is voluntary for the young people - had already begun before the coronavirus pandemic and had been extended due to it, says Westerholt, who, as one of the two KGS teachers in charge, was also involved in the seminar led by Idel from the very beginning. It is now four years since a colleague heard about the experiences at another school on the fringes of a sports training programme, she explains. Such coincidences sometimes make the difference, adds Idel: "That's how innovation comes into schools."
And it is possible that some teachers fresh from the University of Oldenburg will bring this concept to other schools in the future. Neele Grätz is certainly enthusiastic. "The idea is really cool. So cool, in fact, that I immediately trained as a trainer so that I could lead workshops with young people in future challenge projects and prepare them for this adventure."
