Our conclusions
We had a very good time in Nyborg and it was very interesting for us to discover a new school and a different school system. You can read about our main conclusions in the following lines:
It was shocking for us to see that the teachers are not focused on assessment. When we observed different classes and projects and asked about assessment, the answer was always that they hadn't thought about it. So our conclusion is that we are more aware of assessment than Danish teachers.
We were also impressed about the system they have to hire teachers. The headmasters can choose the teachers that work in the public schools, so one of their jobs is to look for teachers and convice them to work with them.
Comparing the two schools, we also see that we care a lot more about mentoring. We use mentors to take care about the students, and to orientate them.
Another big difference is the amount of resources we have. It is evident that the Danish education system has more resources (more teachers, more space in the buildings, more teaching resources, etc.).
Apart from all this, we saw some things that surprised us positively:
They have the figure of pedagogs, who are in the classrooms working together with teachers. For every two classes of about 25 students each they have two teachers and one pedagog.
Schools do not have fences, so they are completely open to the street.
The Erasmus+ projects are coordinated by the municipalities, not the schools. We liked this idea, because preparing an Erasmus+ mobility is a lot of work for the schools.
There are groups of schools who are focused on one same thing. An example is the LEAPS (Learning and Engagement through Authentic Projects with a focus on Science).
We discovered a new methodology which we liked very much. We are talking about the thinking classrooms. When using this method, they do not use books, notebooks, chairs or desks. They work in groups and they use whiteboards. They are presented different challenges that they have to solve by thinking.