Education: Hope for newcomers in Europe
Interactions in regular classes
Interactions in regular classes vary widely, depending on state policies, teacher education and school cultures. Regular class teachers often make great efforts to help all students to participate in their lessons. However, they are often not well prepared to teach their subject in a group that includes German language learners, and not all schools and teachers consider it as their task to address the learning needs of students with different levels of German proficiency. The authors did not find any documented cases in which mother-tongue teachers are employed to help alleviate the impact of education gaps. We consider that the following measures are urgently required to improve the situation in regular classes that include newly arrived refugee students: • Team-teaching with two teachers, or one teacher with additional specialised staff, can help to address learning needs in heterogeneous classes with different learning preconditions - including different levels of German proficiency. • Deferred grading is a means to gradually lead German language learners towards accomplishing education standards without being assessed as failures. • Increased teacher education for integrated subject teaching and second language learner pedagogy, for example through scaffolding techniques, can help regular class teachers to meet the challenges of including German language learners in their lessons. • Targeted additional support, for example by professional staff with knowledge of mother tongues, can assist students in coping with regular class curricula. • Updated multilingual information can help families and students to make informed choices in the transfer stages between schools in Germany – for example for the best suitable school type after primary school and for assessment of uniquely German choices of vocational training.
Staff needs and shortages Germany has a relatively comprehensive teacher education with a Bachelor degree, a Master’s degree in two subjects, and a state-regulated preparatory service after which many teachers gain permanent employment in life-time civil service. This makes it difficult for politicians to react quickly to changes in numbers and needs, and also for refugee teachers to get their qualifications recognised. Refugee numbers rapidly increased at a time when staff shortages A 35