14 Oldenburg student teachers have now had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with school lessons in another country. They spent a day in a Dutch school - and discovered exciting differences.
The modern technology, the good condition of the buildings, the electronic class register - Pia Riefert and Sina Biel would have liked to have brought a lot back with them from their visit to the Netherlands. But there were also impressions that the two student teachers found rather disconcerting. "It was often quite loud in class, I couldn't stay quiet as a teacher," says Biel, and Riefert adds: "The rooms have a continuous glass front to the corridor. On the one hand, this provides light and transparency, but on the other, it also distracts from the lesson if someone is walking outside."
As part of a block seminar with a total of 14 participants, the two prospective primary school teachers spent a day in the Netherlands at the beginning of October. There, they observed lessons at two secondary schools in Emmen and Groningen. They were supported by Dutch fellow students who had organised the visits to the schools to give the Germans a real insight into everyday school life. The Dutch students - all German teachers - had already visited the grammar school in Bad Zwischenahn in September and had gained impressions of German classrooms.
"Getting to know other school systems in practice broadens the students' personal and professional horizons," says Dr Sylvia Jahnke-Klein from the Institute of Educational Sciences, who designed the block event for Master's students together with her Dutch colleague Annalien Prozée and Mathias Mitzschke from the NHL Hogeschool. The actual excursion was preceded by two days of theory, some of which the groups completed together. The German and Dutch school systems are not easy to compare, says Jahnke-Klein. This is due, for example, to the federal structures in Germany and the different degrees of autonomy on both sides of the border: in the Netherlands, schools generally operate more independently. The start of school careers also differs. In the Netherlands, children start school at the age of four, primary school lasts eight years and the individual schools are more in competition with each other. "The technical equipment is much better there - there are presentation monitors or interactive whiteboards in every classroom and many schools provide tablets for lessons," says Jahnke-Klein.
Pia Riefert can only confirm this. She was particularly impressed by the electronic class register, which is widely used in the Netherlands. "The teachers enter everything in there: who is absent, what homework needs to be done. Even the grades are recorded and can be viewed directly by the parents," says the student. In her opinion, a similar digital solution for managing everyday school life at German schools is long overdue - as is the digital remodelling of classrooms. "The Dutch smiled when they saw overhead projectors in our classrooms," interjects Sina Biel.
The cross-border seminar also highlighted differences in teacher training. The Dutch students have been working in schools since their Bachelor's degree and are studying for their Master's degree while working - in just one subject and with more intensive practical phases than in Germany. "In the Netherlands, you can already be a teacher at the age of 21," says Jahnke-Klein. The students also investigated the special features of the Dutch school system with the help of interviews with pupils, teachers and school managers. The latter run the schools in the Netherlands.
Despite all the differences, many similarities were also identified, and the German and Dutch students agreed that the quality of teaching ultimately depends on the professionalism of the individual teacher. "Looking across the border to our neighbours has shown us new things and made our own, familiar things appear in a different light. This applies to Germans and Dutch alike," summarised Mathias Mitzschke.
