Student competition for political education
The student competition for political education is the largest German-language competition for political education and is sponsored by the Conference of Ministers of Education. Since 1971 the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) has been putting out the competition nationwide every year. The student competition is also aimed at German schools abroad ; the schools in Austria , the schools in the German-speaking Community in Belgium, the schools in South Tyrol and, since 2016, the schools in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are also invited . Around 60,000 young people take part every year, and since the start of the competition, a total of more than three million schoolchildren have taken part. School classes can create creative projects such as short films, podcasts or presentations for tasks that change every year and deal with current social issues and submit them to the Federal Agency for Civic Education. This evaluates the contributions and rewards the best contributions with prizes.
procedure
The competition for political education begins with the new school year and ends at the beginning of December with the submission deadline. Schoolchildren in grades 4 to 12 work on a teaching project in their class, in a course or in a group, which they can choose from six different subject areas. Copies can be requested free of charge from the Federal Agency for Civic Education. On the website of the bpb, the tasks are supplemented by current information and materials - also for teachers.
For levels 4 to 8 and 8 to 12, two tasks with different degrees of difficulty are offered. These are not differentiated according to school type. In several evaluation rounds, however, it is ensured that submissions from traditionally more disadvantaged types of school also have a fair chance of reaching the prize ranks.
After the submission deadline (usually at the beginning of December), the projects will be assessed for their worthiness by around 70 pre-jurors after a detailed discussion of the content, before the main jurors then make the final awarding of the prizes in a second evaluation round. The main jury includes, among other things, annually changing junior jurors who still go to school and can also check the projects for their age-appropriate presentation. The results will be published in early February and the winning classes will receive their prizes.
Afterwards, internal preparations for the next round of the competition begin. This has to take place so early, as the competition is particularly characterized by being the only one of its kind to carry out a test run. Selected school classes work on the tasks before publication and give the editors feedback on the tasks. In this way, the exercise books can be revised again and the most precise formulations and age-appropriate tasks can be guaranteed.
Goals of the competition
An important goal is that the students, as a whole class or as a course with the support of a teacher, deal with current topics that are currently being discussed in our society. The projects are specially adapted to the curricula of as many class levels as possible, so that they can be easily linked to general teaching units. On the other hand, the children and adolescents should become active themselves and obtain information in a variety of ways, evaluate and filter the collected findings. After all, all of the knowledge has to be presented in such a way that it is interesting and understandable for others. Each topic is assigned certain forms of presentation, for the tasks for the younger ones, for example, wall calendars, quartets or board games, wall newspapers or picture stories, for the older ones including multimedia presentations, websites, illustrated documentation or newspaper pages.
These projects are intended to strengthen the students' independent work and the class community and arouse interest in political issues. Developing your own well-founded opinion plays an important role here. The practical orientation of the competition promotes project teaching and the pupils have the opportunity to research independently and, for example, to prepare and hold expert discussions.
Prices
In the school competition for political education, 350 prizes can be won, including eleven one-week school trips to Germany and abroad as well as numerous cash prizes up to 2,000 euros. As a special highlight, the classes that can achieve a main prize will be surprised by a visit by the student competition team and their prizes will be presented personally.
The remaining 340 classes, which can successfully secure a prize, receive their cash award and a certificate, all others receive a certificate of attendance. Regardless of whether a prize is won, all participants receive recognition - in the 2018 competition year it was a fabric backpack in the design of the school competition.
literature
- Hans-Georg Lambertz Project Learning in Class - The Student Competition for Political Education. In: W.B Beutel, S. Tetzlaff (Ed.): Schoolchildren's Competitions for Democracy Education Frankfurt 2018, ISBN 978-3-7344-0703-1 , pp. 67-92
- W. Bags, U. Marwege: School competitions in political education. In: D. Lange, V. Reinhardt (ed.): Basic knowledge of political education. Volume 6: Methods of Political Education. Hohengehren 2007, ISBN 978-3-8340-0211-2 , pp. 204-211.
- F. Zöllner: You should make yourself an image! Experience with the school competition for political education. A workshop report. In: Federal Center for Political Education (Hrsg.): Political lessons in the information age. Media and new learning environments. Schwalbach 2001, ISBN 3-89331-429-6 , pp. 236-244.
- G. Abel-Olsen, A. Heidrich, H. Wurzel: Student competition for political education, Federal Agency for Political Education. In: Robert Bosch Stiftung (Ed.): School and German Unity. Programs and projects of common learning and action between East and West. (Examples, experiences, suggestions, practical advice). Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-922934-52-8 , pp. 68-79.
- W. Redwanz: The student competition for political education. An example of action-oriented learning. In: G. Breit, S. Schiele (Ed.): Action orientation in political instruction. Schwalbach 1998, ISBN 3-89331-351-6 , pp. 325-343.
- Federal Agency for Political Education (Ed.): The student competition for political education - project method as a means of political education. Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-921352-49-5