Polytechnic lessons
The polytechnic education was a cornerstone in the education system in the GDR . The Polytechnic Oberschule (POS) is named after him . As the most widespread type of school, it provided ten years of training with practical lessons. The term was coined by Henry Holmes Belfield , who opened the Chicago Manual Training School in 1883. He found the interest of John Dewey , who advocated learning by doing . It was also a central element of education in the Soviet Union .
Historical background
Soviet Union
Polytechnic instruction was a major element of communist educational reform after the Russian October Revolution . Behind him stood Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya , who from 1917 held a leading position at the People's Commissariat for Education . Often, however, manual labor or production activities were simply practiced without educational value, so that the teachers defended themselves against this subject. Because of inadequate requirements in the schools, even the subject of works was abolished in 1937 under Stalin, who relied on an authoritarian learning school. But because these lessons were so closely part of the communist school concept with the combination of learning and work, he returned to Stalin. In 1954 and 1955 new timetables and curricula for general schools were introduced, which again contained elements of polytechnical instruction ( handicraft lessons in grades 1-4, practical work in school workshops and school gardens in grades 5-7, as well as internships in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and agriculture in the 8-10 grade). The purpose was to "connect school with life". Khrushchev criticized the XX. CPSU party congress in February 1956 that “the lessons are not realistic enough, that the graduates of the school are not adequately prepared for practical work. You have to move from words to actions faster. "
GDR
In Germany, it goes back to educational reform approaches , which, for example , were required after 1918 by the Bund decided school reformers with concepts for work schools or production schools and which have long been practiced at some independent schools.
The "polytechnization" that began in the GDR from the end of the 1950s did not only influence school education. One of the government's goals was to form a “ socialist personality ” who should be familiar with the principles of work and the way of life of the working population as a child . “Respect for work” was among other things one of the main principles for the formation of the socialist personality, which acts in awareness of oneself and the community. Sponsor brigades already looked after kindergartens .
Polytechnic instruction was officially introduced in 1959. In 1965, the Polytechnic Oberschule was legally established as a compulsory school for grades 1 to 10. Until the end of the state in 1989, it existed without major structural changes.
In the current school, vocational preparation and internships at school are aimed at choosing a career, but without a theory of personality development behind it.
Content
The polytechnical instruction encompassed all grade levels. In the lower grades (grades 1 to 6), he distinguished himself through the handicraft and school garden lessons . The aim was to familiarize the students with the theoretical and practical aspects of productive work.
In grades 7 to 10 there was then an active participation in the GDR production. The following subjects were on the plan:
- Introduction to Socialist Production (ESP) - Grades 7-10
- Technical drawing (TZ) - grades 7–8
- Productive work (PA), up to 1970 day of teaching in socialist production (UTP) - grades 7–10
It was planned that the polytechnic lessons should, if possible, end in the 10th grade with a course in electrical engineering. It is compulsory for the polytechnic lessons in EOS classes 11 and 12 to be carried out as scientific and practical work with four hours per week each .
Quote
The path covered . From an article by NK Krupskajas from November 1932:
In 1919 the party program was adopted, in which it was clearly stated that the Soviet school must become a polytechnical school which familiarizes theory and practice with all the main branches of production, establishes a close connection between teaching and productive work and all-round developed members of the communist society. [...] In the years 1919 to 1920, however, the factories and businesses were idle and the connection with production was very problematic. The productive labor that was introduced had mainly the character of manual labor. [...] The need to transform our school into a polytechnical work school was very urgent. From the educational magazines this question made its way into the factories and factories and began to attract public attention. In August 1930 a congress for polytechnic education was held. [...] It turned out that school policy and school practice were largely infected by the “left” theories of “school death” and the “project method” when systematic learning was exchanged for individual socialist “work” tasks. Economists sometimes saw school as a supplier of unpaid workers, whereas the school was not always able to offer resistance everywhere. The work of the children was thus subordinated to the aims of the economy and not those of teaching and upbringing. [...] Basically there was no connection between the lessons and the productive work, rather an unbelievable confusion and disorganization of the lessons arose ...
See also
literature
- Federal Agency for Civic Education (Ed.): Slow motion 23, Youth in the GDR, p. 21, July 1989.
- Andreas Tietze: The theoretical appropriation of the means of production. Subject, structure and socio-theoretical justification of polytechnical education in the GDR. Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-63919-1 .
- Jürgen Oelkers : Reform Education, History of the Development of an International Movement , Friedrich, 2010
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Guide to the Henry H. Belfield and Belfield Family Papers 1849-1967. Retrieved August 2, 2020 .
- ^ Dewey / Learning by Doing - Connie Goddard. Retrieved August 2, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Michael Lausberg: Educational Policy in the Soviet Union until 1966. Retrieved on August 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Jelena Lebedeva: Nadežda Konstantinovna Krupskaja (1869-1939) wife of Vladimir Ill'ič Lenin (1870-1924) her participation in the establishment of the Soviet education system . 2009, p. 21st f . ( [1] [PDF]).