School lessons

Teaching in the 15th century; Monk and student

Lessons in 1st grade, 1949

School lessons are called lessons at a school - a form of organization of courses that is intended to enable an exchange of knowledge , experience , skills and abilities, i.e. learning .

General

Lessons are intended to increase learning and are therefore usually structured using different methods (see list of teaching methods ). A skilful use and change of methods should lead to better learning success for the students , a change should make the lessons more varied and different learning types should be addressed ( see: heterogeneity ).

The lessons do not necessarily have to be led by the teacher , but can also be prepared and carried out by the students themselves in specially trained classes (OU = open lessons , LdL = learning through teaching , EVA = independent work ). Classes can be compulsory or optional .

Lessons mostly take place in a school . Knowledge and skills can be transferred in different ways, for example by demonstrating and explaining. This type of practical teaching is not tied to a school. In Germany, too, there are increasing numbers of families who are deciding whether or not to teach their children at home in the form of home schooling ( unschooling ). New models are being tested in school trials.

At a university , teaching takes place mainly in lectures and seminars .

The science of didactics provides the teacher with reasons for using certain topics (in short: what? And why that? ), While the methodology researches the effect of using different teaching methods (in short: how? And why so? ).

The most common method is frontal teaching (the teacher stands / sits in front and speaks to / with the class), but projects, individual, partner and group work as well as lectures and presentations also have more or less space, depending on the teacher and subject. A distinction is made between the social forms (individual, partner, group and class lessons) and the methods with which the social form is combined.

"Standard lessons" are usually structured according to the following pattern:

Formulation of the lesson topic - often with a problem that is intended to serve as motivation .
Development phase: z. B. in individual or partner work. This social form enables the teacher to give individual help; this is also relieved of control tasks.
Collection phase: class discussion, documentation of the results (blackboard, projector)
Securing results
Practice phase
Homework that picks up on the subject of the hour and should help consolidate it

The school studies PISA and TIMSS make demands about a changing teaching culture.

School schedule

The school branches are divided into:

School types

The following types of schools are publicly or privately sponsored in Germany:

School lessons (theoretical lessons)

In the past, boys and girls were usually taught separately. Often there was also a spatial separation z. B. by teaching at boys 'and girls' schools.

In Germany after 1960, teaching became co-educational across the board . Girls and boys are now taught together in up to a few dozen schools. In the 1990s in particular, however, as confirmed by studies, doubts arose as to whether the desired equal opportunities would really be achieved. The boys' social behavior has an inhibiting effect on the girls, and especially in science subjects there are disadvantages for the girls. However, recent studies also confirm this assumption in reverse in the (foreign) language subjects. In teacher (advanced) training, more emphasis is now placed on heterogeneity and how it is dealt with in lessons, also through the integrative approach, in order to counteract these mutual disadvantages. A temporary departure from co-education has proven itself in sex education, since same-sex groups allow this sensitive topic to be discussed better and more intensively.

Lessons in Germany

At German state-run mainstream schools, a teaching unit often lasts 45 minutes, in Austria teaching units are 50 minutes long. The lesson time usually consists of 6 units of 5 days each.

The evaluation is divided into

Major subjects are subjects with three or more lessons per week (e.g. German, English, and math).
Minor subjects are all other subjects.

There are two different types of certificates:

Certification interim certificate: January 31st (in some federal states instead before the winter holidays ) and blue letter
Issuing of certificates Transfer certificate: Before the summer vacation

Lessons in Austria

One lesson in Austria lasts 50 minutes. (5 minutes longer than in Germany) Calculated over 12 years, that's 1.2 school years, so the 13th school year is incorporated in Germany. In Austria there are officially no major and minor subjects, school work subjects are officially just as important as all other subjects. The terminology "major" and "minor" is only used colloquially. After the first semester there is a school message with the grades in winter, and an annual report at the end of the year. In Austria the school hours are often irregularly distributed over the week, so that it is possible that 8-10 hours are held on one day and only 4 hours on another. There are schools with five and six days of lessons, the latter being very rare.

In many high schools or AHS ( A llgemeinbildende H igher S chools) - as in Austria, the general schools are called on completion with A-levels (Abitur), there are so-called school sections:

Grammar school with a language focus - Latin, French, etc.
Humanistic grammar schools are called the few AHS long forms (8 years) that offer Latin and Greek. They are mostly Catholic private schools.
Secondary school with a focus on drawing (geometric drawing, also computer-aided), computer graphic design
High school with a focus on natural sciences
Upper level Realgymnasien (four years old) are called ORG (mostly in Catholic private schools) or BORG (Federal Upper Level Realgymnasium). After a secondary school, pupils can attend the upper level at a BORG (ORG) and take the Matura.

In addition to the AHS, the Austrian school system has a number of higher vocational schools that are characterized by a five-year upper level. A pupil thus completes his or her training in these schools after the 13th grade. These higher vocational schools also finish with a high school diploma.

HTL (higher technical college) or
HLW (Higher School for Economic Professions) and
HAK (commercial academy)

The lessons in the HTLs last up to 48 hours per week and includes internships, workshops and laboratories. The focus is on high-quality professional training. The graduates of an HTL (for mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, measurement and control technology, civil engineering / structural engineering / civil engineering, IT, chemistry, etc.) can officially register themselves in all official certificates of engineer "Ing . " (in front of the name).

Literature - media

HP Ginsburg, SF Jacobs, LS Lopez: Teacher's Guide to Flexible Interviewing in the Classroom - Learning What Children Know About Math. Allyn & Bacon, Boston 1998, ISBN 0-205-26567-7 .
Hans Glöckel : About the class. Textbook of general didactics. 4th edition. Bad Heilbrunn / Obb. 2003, ISBN 3-7815-1254-1 .
Helmut Heid : Quality in teaching practice. ( Memento from December 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (School Development Portal Middle Franconia, 2004).
H.-U. Grunder among others: Teaching - understanding - planning - designing - evaluating. Baltmannsweiler 2007, ISBN 978-3-8340-0258-7 .
Ingo Hoffmann, Ingo Nickel: Dream job as a teacher? Reports from everyday school life. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022191-0 .
Ruth Rustemeyer : Introduction to Educational Psychology. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-16262-5 .
Thomas Unruh, Susanne Petersen: Good teaching - tools for teaching professionals. 8th edition. AOL Publishing House, 2007.

Web links

Wiktionary: School lessons - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

^ Meyer, teaching methods, s. Def. Social form

[1] Meyer, teaching methods, s. Def. Social form