Promoting teacher competence to develop a learning atmosphere in school classes that are heterogeneous especially in terms of language, culture and achievement following the principles and practice of Gestalt-pedagogy

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1. Goals
2. Background
3. Progress
4. Supporting Institutes
5. Trainings and Teams
6. Evaluation Reports
7. Contacts

further contents Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3 | Module 4

1. Goals:

The goal of this project in continuing education is to further develop the personal, didactic and social competences of teachers and thereby to promote the individual learning prerequisites and the learning atmosphere in school classes where language, culture and achievement are heterogeneous.

This project is directed to teachers of all grades and types of schools who experience a classroom situation in which learning is becoming increasingly difficult due to a growing number of individual learning disorders, collective refusals to learn, conflicts and other instructional disturbances.

In a guided situation teachers of all grades and from different countries will be able to experience a group's heterogeneity just as directly and immediately as otherwise their pupils do.

In order to participate in such a situation--which is not only unusual and interesting, but may also be disturbing--it is necessary for the participants to have had sufficient experience in job-oriented awareness training (see Offer 5).

Modul 1:

The first module serves as an introduction to Gestalt pedagogy. Starting from personal, social and professional skills this module provides an opportunity to experience the basic presuppositions and methodical approaches of Gestalt pedagogy combined with meeting people from other cultures. This may be associated with the following topics:

• expression of various cultures through tradition, songs, fairy tales and games;
• family structures and hierarchies in the various countries and their effects on teacher-

pupil interaction;

• pedagogical concepts and forms of instruction in different national traditions;
• the significance of Gestalt-psychological-laws for instructional purposes;
• theories of developmental processes for groups and school classes.

Modul 2:

In Module 2 participants will deepen their experience and cognizance of Gestalt pedagogy as well as utilize the skills and competences acquired in Module 1 to devote themselves to the following topics with more differentiated self-awareness and reflection:

• realizing and understanding one's own feelings and behavioral impulses as conditioned by biographical and cultural circumstances;
• biographical and cultural roots of values as well as reality concepts;
• differences in the concepts of political education and traditions in dealing with party political controversies at school and during instruction.

Modul 3:

In this module we deal with the main emphasis of the didactic dimension of Gestalt pedagogy.

The participating teachers will broaden their newly acquired skills and also critically appraise the possibilities of using Gestalt-pedagogy in instruction. This may include:

• differences in behavior and reactions of pupils to instruction in the participating countries;
• understanding and utilizing learning motivation and obstruction in language instruction on the basis of insecure identity by using methods of playing games;
• recognizing and understanding so-called behavioral problems as an expression of differences of values and reality concepts;
• using instructional disturbances, discipline problems and refusals to learn as opportunities to reform the instruction according to process orientation;
• dealing with borderline cases in instruction (critical incidence).

Modul 4:

This module provides an opportunity to critically examine prejudices, exclusions and ethno-centered perspectives. The competences acquired in the previous modules will be tested and consolidated while dealing with issues of the following sort:

• different religious orientations and the different significance of religion in societal life;
• considering the exclusion of individuals or minorities as group-dynamic phenomena, which could serve as an introduction to processes leading to understanding and integration;
• experiences with children from borderline groups and societal danger zones and possibilities of dealing with this complex;
• recognizing and reducing ethno-centered positions in specialized instruction;
• bias and prejudice in perceiving the history of one's own country and its relation to other countries.