Gotthilf Hiller

Gotthilf Gerhard Hiller (* 1944 ) is a German educator.

Career

In 1967 he passed his state examination for teaching at elementary schools, received his doctorate in 1969, and from 1971 taught pedagogy for the disabled at the PH Reutlingen and at the PH Ludwigsburg until he retired. Hiller is considered to be a representative of a culture-sociologically founded and target group-specific didactics. Like Werner Nestle and Gerhard Klein (pedagogue) , he belongs to the so-called Reutlingen School, which decisively shaped pedagogy for people with learning disabilities in the 1970s and 1980s.

Act

Concept of a "realistic youth school"

From a future perspective of the students, Hiller orients his didactic concept towards students who

- usually have to lead their future life on an economically narrow, often unsecured basis,

- Due to their low social attractiveness, they only have very limited opportunities on the market for private relationships,

- come into forced contact with public institutions and offices and

- have to live with the social reproach of being to blame for their difficult, often unbearable situation.

With this concept, he reacts to an orientation towards the norm of the middle class in pedagogy for the learning disabled, which he criticizes as "culturally imperialist" and which prepares students for a life they will never lead.

Hiller envisages an opening of schools to the reality of life in which the pupils find themselves during and after school, and describes teachers and accompanying adults as supporters and role models who can show the way. Teachers in particular should be aware of how far their own living environment is from what surrounds and expects the students. These could come closer to the realities of life of students with learning disabilities by practicing continuous, long-term "follow-up care" for individual students, systematically with narrative literature on the lives of children, adolescents and adults in disturbed circumstances as well as with relevant social science literature employ. Hiller noted around 30 years ago that students in the "lower fifth of society" end up in marginalized, insecure and low-paid jobs after graduation. Phases of unemployment, insecure social relationships, problems with legality and coping with everyday life would also be mutually dependent. This applies in particular to school leavers from special schools with a focus on learning and social emotional development, weak secondary school students and students without a school leaving certificate. Hiller accused the integration discussion, which was current at the time, of "social romanticism" and instead designed a youth school that

- offers all pupils the opportunity to attend a five-year primary school. To compensate for their learning difficulties, the students can be given more time for the same content, with trained specialist staff provided to ensure the transition to a secondary school.

- provides for a two-year entry level to youth schools. This intermediate level is designed for 12 to 13 year old students who need further preparation in order to be able to go through secondary school.

- Provides vocational and practical training for 14 to 17 year old pupils who are not attending secondary school.

Youth school as an alternative concept to the secondary school / special school provides for initial access to the employment system beyond school days without the need to secure a livelihood through training remuneration from companies (transfer payments).

Concept of "awareness-raising teaching"

Hiller sees the orientation towards the respective life worlds of the students and their current life issues as the central principle of awareness-raising teaching. The pupils should get a realistic view of their future participation in social life, they should be aware that they will have to act as "border crossers" between their own world and one that is oriented towards the norm of the middle class. Hiller suggests home visits, long-term follow-up care and, above all, respectful, appreciative interaction as well as intensive discussion of the written and oral statements of the students so that "dialog barriers" between teachers and students can be removed with regard to what is part of the living environment and their important people in the environment. Awareness-raising thus also affects teachers who, in a dialogical relationship, should fully adjust to the topics and needs of their students.

Fonts (selection)

• Gotthilf Gerhard Hiller: Break out of the education cellar. Armin Vaas Verlag, 1991 (4th edition now published)
• Gotthilf Gerhard Hiller: From standardized simplicity to normal diversity. Plea for a strengthening of the integrative function of the education system. In: Journal for Pedagogy. Volume 37, Issue 2, 1991, pp. 225–244
• Gotthilf Gerhard Hiller: Plea for an archeology of the forms of teaching and learning. In: The German School. DDS. Journal for educational science, educational policy and educational practice. The German School. Weinheim 1994, 86th volume, issue 4, pp. 421-439

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Werning / Lütje-Klose: Introduction to pedagogy for learning disabilities . Ernst Reinhardt GmbH & Co KG Verlag, Munich 2006, p. 120-126 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Hiller, Gotthilf: Break out of the educational cellar . 3. Edition. Armin Vaas Verlag, Langenau-Ulm 1994, p. 15-47 .
3. ↑ Hiller, Gotthilf G .: Perspectives of the school for people with learning disabilities. Outlines of an educational concept for children and young people of the lower status groups . Ed .: Journal for Pedagogy. tape 34 , no. 2 , 1988, p. 227-245 .