Mobility 2: Job Shadowing in Germany (bremen)

Participant: María Fernández Medarde

Dates: From 22nd to 28th October 2018

Place: Wilhelm-Kaisen Schule, Bremen, Germany.

Link to the Final Report

In general, the participant’s job shadowing activity at the Wilhelm Kaisen Oberschüle in Bremen has been very positive in two ways: to observe and compare the working of the German school with hers and to be able to improve her own teaching practice.

On the one hand, there are several things that are very different from the way our school does things. One is the young age at which German children begin their Secondary Education, as they are only ten years old. Also, it is not the Principal or Viceprincipals who prepare the timetables for the whole school, but some volunteer teachers who must also change them when a teacher is ill or missing work for some other reason. Besides, classes are concentrated in two consecutive periods, so they last for an hour and a half and then they have a twenty-minute break, which may help students to concentrate, especially the younger ones.

On the other hand, the visiting teacher has seen that the foreign language lessons at he school in Bremen are much more aimed than hers at improving the students’ speaking, listening, writing and reading skills. This means that pupils take part in them in a much more active way. The teachers use far more frequently pair work, group work or project based learning, and concentrate less on grammar teaching. They also use the second language constantly to communicate with their students, especially with those who are more fluent. The pupils are divided into groups depending on their level of English or Spanish, which is essential when you are teaching a language other than your own. These groups are not big, as there are only about twenty to twenty-two students in each, which also helps to make them more active and autonomous.

To sum up, the job shadowing experience in Germany has been very positive and formative for the visiting teacher. She has been able to watch how a school in a different country works, to learn other ways of organising a school and to see new methods to teach a foreign language which she will be able to use in her own classes in the future.