Education International Research
Teachers in preparatory courses must deal with high levels of fluctuation as students can enter and leave the course at any time of the year. I noticed a birthday calendar in the back of the classroom of a preparatory German course and counted 59 names. The teacher told me that she hung up the calendar about two-and-a-half-years ago. This means that she greeted on average two new students per month, and that the entire class changed about twice a year. (Author D. Vogel)
Being faced with the needs of learning groups with a high diversity of age and educational backgrounds, teachers in preparatory German courses are often highly engaged with ‘their’ children and gain significant practical experience in internal differentiation in class. The preparatory course in an Oberschule in the city of Bremen includes 12 students aged between 10 and 16. Two Syrian boys aged 12 years have been in the class for two weeks in which they have been introduced to a couple of letters. The teacher starts the school day with a run-and-write-exercise in which all students take part. Pages with words or short phrases on three different levels are placed on tables in the back of the room. Students read, go back to their table and write down the words in their notebooks. The students with only two weeks of literacy training write words like mama, while the more advanced students write more difficult words and expressions. When they are ready, they show it to the teacher who advises them to check a word again if necessary. (Author D. Vogel, observation)
Lack of literacy is considered a challenge that cannot be adequately coped with in preparatory German courses. In response to this problem, the education administration started introducing separate courses for students without literacy in any language in 2016, but the system is not yet fully developed. At the beginning of the 2017/18 academic year, five literacy courses were being conducted at schools offering general education and eight at vocational schools (Bremische Bürgerschaft, 2017).
3.2.4. Coping with increasing numbers in times of teacher shortages Teachers are allocated to schools according to the number of their preparatory German classes. This differs according to the particular school level. It is foreseen that newly arrived students without proficiency in German can attain 20 lessons per week for six months in primary schools, for one year in secondary schools and for two years in occupational education. (Bremische Bürgerschaft, 2016, p.9)
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