Prague Summer School

This week I am in Prague for the Summer School on the future of school. Their website describes it as follows:

The Summer School will address the issues of effective teaching and mediating knowledge in the current world. We will explore the ways a teacher contributes to child development starting from the early days to the lifelong learning processes. We will explore the new trends in teaching and look into their effectiveness. As well as examining how other social agents – parents, tutors and peers (may) contribute to the education process.

Day 0 (Saturday)

We started with some nice icebreakers to get to know each other. Prague Summer Schools offers five different programmes, and everybody came together for some introduction games and practical information. It is a very international group with almost every continent represented. Some of them are Bachelor students, some Master students, PhD students, but also practioners and even high school students.

The housing is great, as is the venue. The summer school offers an interesting programme including some cultural trips and social events.

Day 1 (Sunday)

Cross curriculair topics

Two lectures on how to implement cross curiculair topics into primary education. Quit interesting, and very relevant also in the Dutch context. The differences between countries are large, but most of the topics (democracy, radicalisation, well being, citizenship, et cetera) seem to be mostly universal, although there are many differences, for example on religion. We had some nice discussions about these topics, but did not find a silver bullet to solve all problems at once.

Tour of Prague

A tour of Prague with a guide in the afternoon.

Day 2 (Monday)

Prevention

Three quarters of the day was filled with prevention. A very interesting topic, for which we were taught best- and bad practices, some insights into mental health issues, trends of risky behaviour of the last years (social media, alcohol, smoking, drugs, energy drinks), and some didactic approaches to enable groups of pupils to reflect upon these things through interactive forms of education. Prevention is a very complex topic, and I very much liked the scientific approach taken by the professor.

Strategic plans of Czech education

The last part of the day gave an insight into the strategic plans of the Czech educational system and how it compares with other countries. The system is somewhat similar to the Dutch system, with some key differences in secondary education. Czech kids get a bit more time to decide what educational path they want to follow. Also, in The Netherlands, Universities of Applied Sciences can offer Master programmes, in Czech, as far as I understood it, only Bachelor programmes are offered. University masters are also 2-3 years, which is one year longer than the Dutch masters. But maybe there are exceptions… All in all Czech education performs quit well compared to other countries. Also, teacher wellbeing is very high.

Day 3 (Tuesday)

Learning disabilities

Very interesting lectures about Learning Disabilities (LD). This really brought me up to speed with the latest insights. We talked about red flags, classroom tips, the causes of LD, instructional principles, and we also experienced what it is like to have LD. We also spent time on how to deal with parents, the differences between sympathie and empathy, why teachers are role models. We ended with emotional disturbances and behavioral disorders.

Pragulic tour

In the afternoon we did a second guided tour of Prague, but this time our tour guide used to be a homeless person with a drug addiction in Prague. We saw the spots where help is offered, the social programmes that are availlable, and the place where he used to sleep. He told us everything in detail about what it is like to live that way in Prague. It was an interesting story.

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Excursion

Excursion to Kunta Hora.

(to be continued)