As part of my Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Fellowship, I had to develop a guiding question for my trip to Germany and follow up on that action research upon my return. I posed the follow questions, and I answer them as best I can in pink font:
-- How do other educators best reach their brightest, highest learners? Germany does not have any gifted programming in their country. This was a foreign concept to all Germans I discussed my job with. They were interested in adding a program like mine. However, the German schools expect so much more of all their students that I believe their gifted learners are better served in the regular education classrooms than American students tend to be. Students read, write, speak, and perform so much more there. Students rarely do worksheets or anything multiple choice based. They found it laughable how much we do. Deeper, more authentic, more rigorous daily assessment pushes their students greatly. It is not perfect by any means, but it would be great combined with gifted services in my opinion. -- Is there a gifted education system or other forms of differentiation to help students reach their greatest potential? See the previous answer above. No gifted system and not much differentiation. Instead, they push for greater performance overall in all students. -- Do teachers generally teach to the middle level, on-grade students in the whole group instruction? Or cater more to the higher or lower achievers? I did not see teachers catering to low level learners at all in Germany. Instead, they completed on grade level tasks across the board and expected every student to perform at that level without extra support. They also gave daily homework. In general, I did not see differentiation of any kind. If I stayed there longer, I would examine how the high and low achieving students feel about classroom work. Instead of differentiating at individual grade levels, they focus on sending students to the right type of secondary school and thereby career. Lower students head to vocational school and higher to gymnasium. It does not seem as though students have many opportunities to change the direction of their life/upbringing and generational patterns definitely exist. -- Can students advance through grades/content faster than peers? Or do students stay with age-equivalent peers every year? Like American education, students are placed in grade levels based on age. They typically do not progress any faster or slower than each other. In fact, they spend first through fourth grades together in the exact same group with the exact same teacher. This is done because that teacher helps direct every child to gymnasium (academic) or vocational school after fourth grade. This is such a heavy responsibility that it is critical for each teacher to know her students and their families deeply and truly. Once in a blue moon, they will advance a child to a new grade (skip a grade), but most Germans I spoke to said this is not ideal. First because the teacher will not know the new student as well for future recommendations and second because the fellow classmates, who spend years together, sometimes don't include that new child as well. -- What do advanced course options look like for secondary students? Like American secondary school, students can sign up for courses that interest them much. However, the German students are usually already in their career specific fields by this time, too, not waiting until college. So while the courses are chosen by the students, their paths are very set by this point as well. -- Do other countries write IEPs for their gifted &/or special education students? Or are those needs handled differently? No. The only special education services Germany offers is completely separate special needs schools. No inclusion. When they do try to work those students into regular schools, they are not given services or aids. Finally, there are no gifted services at all.
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AuthorSophie -- a teacher, mother, wife, traveler, reader, camper, and Mizzou Tiger Archives
July 2022
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