Introduction
Education takes many shapes and forms, and formal education is no different. All across the world, students from age 4-19 enter buildings and systems with the end goal of ‘being educated’. But these goals can vary vastly between country, region and even school type. What is the function of education? How does this differ in Norway, or Germany or Singapore?
In Norway students are not split into different levels until the age of 16, and schools are not allowed by law to differentiate or give formal assessment until this time. Conversely, pupils in the Netherlands students are placed into a stream at the age of 10 or 11 which they could follow for the next 8 years of their lives.
When analysing education systems, we can look at different levels: Structural, Organizational, and Teaching aspects.
Contents
In this course you will start with studying some general literature on comparing educational systems and the Dutch National curriculum and that of the country you will visit during this course. Based on this first exploration of educational systems, you will choose a topic that you would like to focus on and submit a research proposal for a small scale comparative study. You can either choose a topic yourself or use one of the dossiers specifically designed for this course. A dossier is a pre-structured proposal about a topic which includes possible research questions, relevant Literature and instruments for data collection. At the moment three dossiers –focusing on comparing the foreign and Dutch systems - are available: ‘Classroom interaction’, ‘Multi-cultural teaching’, and ‘Pedagogical Climate at school’. More dossiers may follow.
After your proposal has been approved, you will visit a country abroad where you will collect data by means of classroom observations at one or more schools and interviews with members of staff of a school and/or teacher trainers. You will organise and finance the trip yourself. At present, the Graduate School of Teaching has contacts in:
- Konstanz,Germany (4-6 places per year)
- Kreuzlingen, Switzerland (2-4 places per year, preference for visits in Fall semester)
- Wroclaw, Poland
- Moscow, Russia
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Saba, Caribbean Netherlands (1-2 places per year)
- Sint Maarten, Caribbean Netherlands
- To be confirmed: Singapore.
Our partner institutes abroad will help you in making contacts with the schools and other people you would like to interview. Other contacts are being explored. The stay abroad is expected to last between three days and max two weeks. You are free to choose dates for you visit and align these with the receiving institution. Please note that the receiving institution needs to be informed about your visit at least 6 weeks prior to your visit and that certain dates are more convenient than other dates (school holidays, study periods at the university, etc. Please contact course coordinator for details.
After your stay abroad you write a short report about your experiences. As there are no classes and no time slots for this course, you will use online materials and formats, and during the course there will be two individual tutorials with the instructor of the course. One to discuss your tentative plans and a second one to discuss your research proposal. You will be assessed on your paper on comparing educational studies and the final report of your findings.
Notes:
The course can be completed as either a Pedagogisch Keuze cursus (PKC) or Algemene keuze cursus (OKC). If you opt for the PKC variant your research focus will have to be based on pedagogical aspects, such as teacher student interaction, citizenship, (inter)cultural teaching and learning, etc.
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