Lower level teacher

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The lower school teacher - in official parlance, teacher for the lower grades - was a teacher who taught grades 1 to 4 in the polytechnic high schools of the German Democratic Republic .

education

The lower school teachers were trained as part of a four-year (from 1982 five-year) course that was completed in the GDR at a technical school , the Institute for Teacher Training . There were institutes for teacher training in many cities, for example in Berlin , Dresden , Potsdam , Eisenach , Meiningen , Nordhausen , Radebeul , Radibor , Rostock and Templin . Successful completion of the Polytechnic Oberschule was a prerequisite for studying at an institute for teacher training - it was not necessary to pass the Abitur or previous professional training.

Training content

As part of their training, every prospective lower-level teacher acquired a teaching license for the 1st to 4th grade for the subjects of German and mathematics . In addition to these two main subjects, a third subject could be chosen. This third subject was either school garden , sport , music , art education or works . With the latter subject, there was the special feature that a teaching license was granted with which one could teach up to grade 6, since the subject of works was taught up to grade 6.

The training also included compulsory political training as part of the subject “Basics of Marxism-Leninism ”. This subject was part of the teaching students' timetable for the entire 4 or 5 years of training.

Other subjects taught during the course were, for example:

Internships

Various internships had to be completed as part of the course. The small and large school internships should be emphasized here. The latter, for example, took place at the beginning of the 8th semester and lasted from the start of the school year until Christmas. From 1982 this was expanded to include a long-term internship in the ninth and tenth semesters, after the total duration of the study was also extended.

The student was assigned to a school where he had to do the internship. He was assisted by a mentor from the school - in most cases very experienced teachers.

A mentor was also named as a contact person by the training center.

Specialty

The "qualification for extracurricular activity" was integrated into the training to become a lower level teacher. This meant that the trained lower-level teacher could work as an educator in the after-school care center.

Lower school teachers who worked as educators in the after-school care center were able to teach up to 6 hours a week in addition to their work in the after-school care center. Most of the time they then taught a third subject, for example music or sports.

Historical development

On August 24, 1949, the SED party executive approved the school policy guidelines for the new democratic school . After that, the lower school teachers for grades 1–4 should receive a two-year training course at institutes for teacher training (IfL). In 1955 this training was extended to three years, and from the 1970s onwards to four years. According to a decision of the Politburo of the SED on March 18, 1980, the duration of training was gradually increased to five years from 1982, with most of the last academic year being reserved for a large school internship and the future teachers being employed in schools for almost the entire school year.

The basis of the training was the law on the uniform socialist education system in the GDR, which came into force in 1965.

After the turn

The qualification of the lower school teacher was only recognized for the new federal states. Lower-level teachers with a GDR qualification were also classified lower in terms of collective bargaining than teachers with an elementary school teacher qualification in the old federal states . Adaptation seminars had to be attended for equality.

Term in the west

In the structured school system ( Hauptschule , Realschule , district school , grammar school ), the term “lower level teacher” describes a teacher who teaches in the lower level, i.e. grades 5 and 6 (except in Berlin ). It is not to be confused with the training occupation in the GDR described in this article.

See also

literature

  • Helmut Breuer, Maria Weuffen: Particular developmental abnormalities in five to eight year olds. Pedagogical and psychological advice for kindergarten teachers, lower level teachers and after-school care workers , Verlag Volk und Wissen Berlin 1988
  • Adolf Kossakowski u. a .: Psychological help for the lower school teacher , Verlag Volk und Wissen Berlin 1963
  • Distance learning for teachers - lower level , Verlag Volk und Wissen Berlin 1960
  • Nikolai Sawin: Pedagogy. Textbook for the training of lower school teachers , Verlag Volk und Wissen Berlin 1976