It's a lateral move in the middle of the Master's programme, for some a leap in the dark: 275 student teachers are currently completing their practical semester at primary, secondary and intermediate schools in the region. They are now teaching several days a week instead of attending seminars and lectures.
Nina Deeken (23) and Nico Noltemeyer (26) agree that the beginning was "not easy": there was only one weekend between the end of lectures in the winter semester and the start of the internship at their respective schools in the second half of the school year. Semester holidays? Not a chance. Instead, it was a case of "jumping back and forth" between university and school, writing the last written exams - and writing their own seminar papers during the students' Easter holidays.
"Fortunately, I was able to come in slowly and spend the first two weeks observing before I started teaching myself," says Nina, who is studying German and Protestant religion. She has long since arrived at "her" primary school: "I've been part of this school for six months, part of the staff, I'm fully involved, I have my permanent place in the staff room and the classes know me."
Nico, a prospective secondary school teacher for Protestant religion and economics, who is completing the practical block at a secondary school, has a similar experience. "You're basically a teacher at this school." Even if it's "only" for one semester, he works intensively with his pupils and has also sat in on lessons with different teachers in other subjects in order to get to know the young people and their learning behaviour.
Teaching at least two lessons a week in each subject, preparing his own teaching units and carrying out a small research project on school practice: All of this has been part of the Master's programme for prospective primary, secondary and intermediate school teachers for around three years now, which has been extended from two to four semesters. GHR300 is the keyword: the acronym contains the first letters of the three types of school - and the requirement of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs to have 300 credit points with the "Master of Education" degree. Since then, the new practical block, which has been significantly extended to 18 weeks of teaching, along with preparatory, accompanying and follow-up courses, has earned students some of these credits.
"It's a great opportunity," says Jana-Katharina Dressler, research assistant at the Didactic Centre (diz), who analysed the learning processes of chemistry teacher training students in the practical block in her dissertation. "The students gain an intensive insight into the school during their studies." However, the length or quantity of the practical elements alone does not automatically increase the quality. At least in her study, only a few students were able to use the practical block to dovetail the theoretical training content more closely with school practice.
Supposedly useless theory turns out to be helpful in practice
Nina, on the other hand, "found things during my work placement that I thought I would probably never need again at university!" For example, the topic of reading comprehension - i.e. grasping text content - in German lessons. In the second semester, she thought the various models for this were useless theory - "now they've actually helped me". Nico has also realised: "There were some things during my studies that prepared me well for practice, and others that I was less able to apply in practice."
However, according to the 26-year-old, it is hardly possible to have covered everything pedagogically, didactically and specialised after completing a Bachelor's degree and a Master's semester and to be prepared for every situation and technical question as a teacher. "But during the practical phase, I realise what I still need to do." Nina adds: "And there's also something positive about the fact that you always have to keep learning as a teacher."
For diz employee Dressler, getting to know her own strengths and weaknesses and seeing "what I still need to work on" is precisely one of the aims of the practical block. "I'm working on supporting these self-reflective processes even better." For example, the diz is planning new interdisciplinary events from the coming winter semester to further improve student learning in the practical block in future.
This should also simply show "what the academic appointment will look like later, what I will have to do during my traineeship - give me a more detailed insight into the tasks of a teacher". And the practical semester offers students the chance to initially try out their skills in the classroom within the "safe space of the university", says Dressler: for students, the accompanying teacher ultimately retains responsibility for the success of the lesson; "during the traineeship, you already teach independently to some extent".
Nico sees the practical phase as an opportunity to consolidate his career aspirations as a teacher and gain experience. However, he has the feeling, even with fellow students, that everyone quickly adapts to the respective circumstances. "That people no longer scrutinise it as much or look at it from an academic perspective: What is the school system, what could perhaps be improved, what would I like to organise differently - I think there is sometimes a lack of perspective on this." He would also like to see more reflection in this respect, "so that later on, when you can shape school even more, you can really become active".
Nina also sometimes wonders how theory could be better transferred into school practice. "If we discuss in the accompanying German seminar that something is not so good in the lessons, for example dictation, then that doesn't automatically get through to the schools."
Rubbish bin on fire: a moment of shock in chemistry lessons
Speaking of arriving at school: both students rate the required mobility during the internship as difficult. In view of the sometimes long distances with irregular bus or train connections, the assigned school location turned out to be a challenge for some fellow students in terms of time, organisation and also finances. "Maybe that's the prospective economics teacher talking," says Nico, "but I see a need for control here: for example, for the state to look at how travel costs could be reimbursed or an expense allowance paid." After all, the interns have a Bachelor's degree and would also be paid if they were hired as assistant teachers.
What they both appreciate about their internship is the dialogue with their mentors. Nina has "two really great mentors who are also very interested in what's new at the university". They meet regularly after school for a collegial exchange. "We talk about students, for example, and I also realise that my opinion carries weight." However, she has "also heard other stories from friends where things aren't going so well".
The role of mentors is immensely important, as Jana-Katharina Dressler found out in her dissertation. The students, who were able to increase their subject-specific didactic knowledge and their knowledge of the many different ways of organising lessons during the internship, benefited above all from what is known as "model learning" during the work shadowing - in other words, from what they were able to copy from the teachers.
According to Dressler, on the other hand, it was a hindrance to learning for students if they lost sight of the pupils' perspective - and thus the pupils' learning success - by focussing too much on themselves as teachers. Key experiences have also narrowed the view of some students: for example, a chemistry student who, after a brief, fortunately quickly extinguished rubbish bin fire in class, thought more about the safety aspects of teaching than anything else.
Such key experiences may not have happened to Nina and Nico yet, but Nina experiences "little 'aha' moments every day that encourage me not to underestimate primary school pupils. Especially in religion, for example when it comes to the topic of loving one's neighbour, I often hear things from the children that make me think: wow, an adult should get to the heart of that first." She thinks it's a shame that she has to wait another year after her internship to start her traineeship. "I'd love to continue straight away, but soon I'll be back at university," she smiles: "I have to!"
