New Schools for the Country - What Should Education Look Like in the Future?
"This can't go on like this!" - "The kids are getting dumber at school." - "Another cancellation because the teachers are sick?!" - "I'm not a teacher; I can't teach you that." - "As a teacher, I just can't keep up anymore." - "With nearly 30 kids in the class, I'm just glad if I make it through the lesson without major chaos." - "At least no one got into a fight today."
Parents, teachers, educators, and society agree: Education must become a priority for politics. Change is needed. And preferably yesterday.
Overwhelmed teachers who not only cover their own subject but also take on art or German lessons, even though they teach physics and sports. English and French are quickly prepared by AI and language apps, leaving the uninformed teacher to fend for themselves. The buzzword in all schools is TEACHER SHORTAGE.
A term that runs through society as a whole, as there’s a shortage of staff everywhere you look. In healthcare, childcare, retail, and trades. And by now, people have resorted to hiring untrained individuals as so-called career changers, bypassing the need for qualified professionals. This might work in some areas, but in education, it’s often a mistake that children and young people will pay for dearly.
But how can the teacher shortage be addressed? Career changers are only a stopgap, most agree. So how can teaching jobs in schools be made more attractive? How can the learning environment for students be improved? And above all: What could a school of the future look like if done right?
Let’s start from the beginning. Let’s ask the experts!
What Are the Requirements for Studying to Become a Teacher?
The general requirements for a teaching degree are:
- General university entrance qualification (Abitur) or an equivalent qualification.
- Admission restrictions: Some programs may have a Numerus Clausus (NC), depending on the Abitur grade.
- Language requirements: For certain subjects (e.g., foreign languages), proof of language proficiency may be required (e.g., Latinum or English skills).
- Aptitude tests: In some cases, such as for teaching art, music, or sports, additional aptitude tests are required.
How Long Does the Teaching Degree Take for Different Educational Tracks?
- Special Education Teaching:
- Duration: Approx. 9 to 10 semesters (5 years).
- It involves a two-phase study: First, a bachelor’s degree (approx. 6 semesters), followed by a master’s degree (approx. 4 semesters).
- Two special education focuses are studied (e.g., learning, emotional and social development, physical or mental development).
- Primary School Teaching:
- Duration: Approx. 8 to 9 semesters (4 to 5 years).
- Consists of a bachelor’s degree (approx. 6 semesters) and a master’s degree (approx. 2-3 semesters).
- Typically, two to three subjects relevant to primary education are studied (e.g., German, mathematics, social studies).
- Secondary and High School Teaching:
- Duration: Approx. 9 to 10 semesters (4.5 to 5 years).
- The study is also divided into two phases: bachelor’s degree (approx. 6 semesters) and master’s degree (approx. 4 semesters).
- Usually, two teaching subjects are studied, which will later be taught in schools (e.g., mathematics and physics or German and history).
Where Are the Study Locations in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, and Thuringia?
Saxony-Anhalt:
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Halle): Teaching programs for primary school, secondary school, high school, and special education.
- Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg: Only offers teaching degrees for vocational schools.
Saxony:
- University of Leipzig: Offers teaching programs for primary school, secondary school (middle and high school), high school, and special education.
- Technical University Dresden: Teaching degrees for primary school, secondary school, high school, and vocational schools.
- Technical University Chemnitz: Primarily teaching degrees for primary school and secondary school.
Thuringia:
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena: Teaching degrees for primary school, secondary school (middle and high school), high school, and special education.
- University of Erfurt: Specifically focused on primary school and special education teaching.
- Technical University Ilmenau: Teaching degrees for vocational schools.
What Are the Costs of a Teaching Degree?
The teaching degree in Germany, including in the mentioned states, is generally tuition-free (no tuition fees) as most universities are state-funded.
However, semester fees apply, ranging between 100 and 300 euros per semester depending on the university. These fees often include a semester ticket for public transportation, access to university services, and administrative costs.
Additional Costs:
- Living expenses (rent, food, study materials): In cities like Leipzig, Halle, or Jena, monthly expenses range from approximately 700 to 1,000 euros, depending on lifestyle and city.
What Support Options Are Available for Students?
BAföG:
- Students can receive financial support through the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG). The amount depends on parental income and is currently up to 934 euros per month (as of 2023).
- Half as a grant, half as an interest-free loan: Repayment of the loan begins after graduation and depends on future income.
Scholarships:
- There are numerous scholarship programs supporting particularly talented or engaged students. Major providers include:
- German National Academic Foundation
- Deutschlandstipendium (500 euros monthly)
- Party-affiliated foundations (e.g., Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation)
- Subject-specific foundations (e.g., for teaching students in certain subjects)
Part-Time Jobs:
- Many teaching students finance themselves through part-time jobs in gastronomy, retail, or as academic assistants at the university.
Educational Loan:
- In addition to BAföG, there is a state education loan, granted independently of parental income. This can be an additional option if BAföG is insufficient.
State Programs for Teacher Training:
- Some states offer specific programs to support teaching students, especially in shortage subjects like mathematics, physics, or special education.
- In Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, there are also programs to attract teaching students to rural areas.
Currently, becoming a teacher is quite challenging, but is the traditional teaching degree still in tune with the times? Hasn't Saxony-Anhalt been striving for education reform for years? So where is it? Isn't a holistic education a better approach than the patchwork we currently have in education?
A holistic education from early childhood to high school graduation requires a consistent, coherent approach that considers the different developmental stages and needs of children and adolescents. To achieve this, various pedagogical approaches can be combined to promote cognitive, social, emotional, and creative skills. Here are some ideas on how such an education could be structured:
In the Elementary Sector (Kindergarten to about 6 years):
- Reggio Emilia Approach: This approach promotes independence, creativity, and curiosity. Children shape their own learning process through project exploration, supported by educators acting as mentors.
- Montessori Pedagogy: "Help me do it myself." Montessori emphasizes free choice of activities, development at the child's own pace, and a prepared environment enabling independent learning.
In Primary School (6 to 10 years):
- Project-Based Learning (PBL): Children work on real-world projects that connect various subjects and skills, fostering problem-solving and creative solutions.
- Interdisciplinary Learning: Cross-subject teaching combines, for example, mathematics, art, and science to promote holistic thinking.
- Freinet Pedagogy: Provides an environment where children learn through cooperation and experience, emphasizing self-expression, communication, and practical activities.
In Secondary Level I (10 to 16 years):
- Competency-Based Teaching: Focuses on developing individual skills. Instead of just imparting knowledge, teaching is designed to foster critical thinking, teamwork, and self-organization.
- Flipped Classroom: Students prepare independently with digital media and apply their knowledge in school through practical tasks and projects.
- Democratic Education: Schools like Sudbury schools emphasize student autonomy and participation, with students and teachers making decisions together.
In Secondary Level II (16 to 18 years, High School):
- Individualized Learning: Learning can be tailored to students’ interests. As they grow older, students take increasing responsibility for their learning goals.
- Interdisciplinary Projects: Students work on complex projects combining areas like sustainability, technology, and culture.
- Self-Directed Learning: In upper grades, emphasis is placed on independent work and research. Approaches like Problem-Based Learning (PBL) can be used, where students solve real-world problems.
Cross-Age and Interest-Based Learning Helps Here
This is what cross-age learning could look like:
- Peer Learning: Older students help younger ones with learning, fostering social skills and deepening understanding for both groups. For example, secondary students could assist with primary school projects.
- Flexible Groups: Instead of rigid class assignments, students work in interdisciplinary, cross-age groups on projects, expanding knowledge and social interaction.
- Learning Studios: In open learning spaces, students of different ages work together on projects, each contributing and learning from one another.
This Is What Interest-Based Learning Could Look Like:
- Elective Subjects and Projects: Even in primary school, students could choose projects and topics based on their interests. Schools offer diverse learning opportunities aligned with students’ interests (e.g., robotics, art, sports, science).
- Individual Learning Paths: Students can create personalized learning plans to explore topics of importance to them in depth, supported by digital platforms offering tailored content.
- Creative Learning Environments: Schools could feature open learning landscapes and workshops that promote learning through experience and creative projects, motivating students to explore independently.
Future School Models Combine Various Approaches:
- A Learning Hub as a Community Center:
- Flexible School Architecture: Future schools could have adaptable spaces used as group workspaces, labs, or relaxation areas. Traditional classrooms could be replaced by learning studios and project workshops.
- Digital and Analog Learning Resources: Technology will play a key role, combined with tactile and analog tools to support various learning styles.
Teachers as Learning Coaches:
- Teachers act less as lecturers and more as mentors or coaches, guiding and supporting the learning process individually.
- Interdisciplinary teacher teams could collaborate to teach topics comprehensively from different perspectives.
Community Connections:
- Schools should connect more strongly with the local community. Businesses, universities, and cultural institutions could partner to support students through practical projects, excursions, and career orientation.
A future-oriented, holistic education should be child- and interest-centered, cross-age, and interdisciplinary. The focus is on flexibility, self-determination, teamwork, and a strong connection to the real world. This way, a school of the future meets both the individual needs of students and the demands of a rapidly changing society.
And how do we achieve this? - There’s talk of classroom digitalization, so let’s discuss it. - The digital classroom offers many advantages over traditional textbooks and workbooks, making teaching more flexible, interactive, and accessible. To create a comprehensive digital learning environment, technical requirements, pedagogical approaches, and lessons from the pandemic must be carefully considered.
Replacing Textbooks and Workbooks with Digital Content:
- Digital Textbooks: These can be regularly updated to provide current content and are designed with multimedia, including videos, interactive exercises, and simulations, making learning more engaging. They are easily accessible, enable personalized learning, and support students with different learning speeds.
- Digital Workbooks: Using learning apps and platforms (e.g., Moodle, Microsoft Teams, or Google Classroom), worksheets can be completed digitally. Students can submit answers directly, receive automated feedback, and review content.
- Interactive Learning Platforms: Platforms like Kahoot, Quizlet, or H5P offer interactive tests and games that surpass traditional workbooks, promoting active engagement and motivation through gamification.
- Customizability: Content can be tailored to students’ performance levels. Teachers can provide specific modules or exercises for certain student groups, ensuring each is supported at their level.
But Won’t Children Forget How to Write by Hand?
Maintaining handwriting through devices like tablets with styluses (e.g., Apple Pencil or Surface Pen) allows students to continue writing by hand. This can be integrated into apps that support handwritten notes, training writing flow and motor skills. Handwriting training is already available through digital apps as exercises to promote fine motor skills while developing digital competencies. Additionally, a hybrid approach between handwriting and typing could be considered: To preserve handwriting benefits, some tasks could remain handwritten but then digitized. For example, students could photograph their handwritten notes and integrate them into digital portfolios.
The Pandemic Taught Us a Lot, and the Insights from Homeschooling Are Numerous:
- Digital Divide: The pandemic highlighted that not all students had equal access to digital education. Inequalities in equipment (e.g., lack of laptops or weak internet) must be addressed by ensuring all students have access to devices and stable internet connections.
- Teacher Training: Many teachers felt overwhelmed using digital tools. Regular training in digital platforms is essential to deliver effective teaching.
- Lack of Social Interaction: The absence of direct interaction and group work impacted social learning. Solutions could include hybrid learning and interactive group tasks to promote the social component.
- Motivation Issues: Some students struggled to stay motivated during homeschooling. Gamification, personalized learning paths, and regular teacher-student interaction could address these challenges.
- Parent Communication: The pandemic showed the importance of teacher-parent collaboration. Regular updates on learning progress and digital parent meetings could improve this communication.
It’s Clear That Technology Wasn’t Equally Effective for Everyone. Materials and Infrastructure for Digital Learning Must Be Equalized:
- Devices for All Students: Laptops, tablets, or hybrid devices with internet access are essential. Schools must ensure every student has a device.
- Learning Platforms: Software facilitating lesson planning, interactive exercises, and collaboration between students, such as Classroom or Microsoft Teams, should be integrated into teaching.
- Access to Digital Textbooks: Through digital libraries or publishers providing licensed content, students can access learning materials anytime.
Technical Support: Schools need IT support to quickly resolve technical issues. Teachers must be regularly trained in using digital tools.
A Major Issue to Address Here Is Costs: The costs of fully digitalizing schools depend on several factors, including infrastructure, devices, software, training, and ongoing maintenance. A rough cost estimate includes:
- Digital Devices: Each student and teacher needs a laptop or tablet, costing approximately 300–800 € per device. For a school with 500 students and 50 teachers, device costs could range from 165,000–440,000 € (every 3–5 years).
- Maintenance and Support: Annual maintenance, updates, and technical support costs per school could be around 50,000–100,000 €, depending on size and technical needs.
- IT Infrastructure: Expanding fast internet, Wi-Fi networks, and servers is necessary. Infrastructure costs per school could range from 100,000–250,000 €, depending on school size and existing infrastructure quality.
- Software Licenses: License fees for learning platforms, digital textbooks, and other tools cost about 50–100 € per student annually. For a school with 500 students, this results in annual license costs of approximately 25,000–50,000 €.
- Teacher Training: Training teachers in digital tools costs about 500–1,000 € per teacher. For 50 teachers, this would be 25,000–50,000 €.
- Digital Textbooks and Materials: Costs for digital textbooks could also be 100–150 € per student per year, depending on publishers and content. For a school with 500 students, this would be about 50,000–75,000 € annually.
Total Investment: Based on these assumptions, digitalizing a school with 500 students and 50 teachers could initially cost 400,000–1 million €. Annual ongoing costs, including maintenance, licenses, and device replacement, could be around 100,000–200,000 €.
Current Education Sector Costs Vary by Year and Specific Expenditures: In 2022, Saxony-Anhalt’s expenditure on education, youth, and sports was approximately 3.8 billion euros. This includes spending on schools, universities, early childhood education, and other educational areas.
Digitalization May Be a First Step, But Is Learning from Books (or Digital Textbooks) Still Relevant? Isn’t practical learning more important and sustainable? Shouldn’t our main focus be preparing children for a life with diverse challenges, making a holistic school with flexible structures a much better path for our children? Shouldn’t we start adapting curricula to the spirit of the times, designing learning content to be practical and future-oriented, and then think further?
A School Reform for 2050 in Saxony-Anhalt could create a holistic and flexible educational structure based on students’ individual needs, fostering skills for the future and strong connections between schools and society. Considering modern pedagogical approaches and technological developments, the reform would focus on new learning forms, flexible school structures, and interdisciplinary education, while ignoring challenges like demographic change and teacher shortages.
A School Reform Could Include These Points:
- Restructuring the Education System:
The traditional division into primary, middle, and high schools could be replaced by a flexible, permeable structure that better accounts for individual learning paths and interests:
- Elementary Sector (3 to 6 years):
- Children attend learning and exploration centers focusing on playful learning and curiosity-driven projects.
- New technologies, like interactive learning platforms, support curiosity without creating pressure.
- Social and emotional skills are fostered to prepare children for collaborative learning in later stages.
- Flexible Basic Education Sector (6 to 12 years):
- Instead of fixed primary schools, a flexible system brings together children aged 6 to 12 in an open learning environment.
- Learning occurs through project-based and interdisciplinary work, dissolving subject boundaries. Mathematics, science, art, and languages are taught in real-world contexts.
- Individual Learning Plans: Each student receives a tailored plan based on their interests, strengths, and developmental needs. Technology helps monitor learning progress continuously.
- Team Teaching: Mentors work in teams to guide students in projects rather than teaching frontally.
- Secondary Level I (12 to 16 years):
- Students choose subject modules matching their interests and abilities. Instead of rigid classes, they move between learning areas that are project- and competency-oriented.
- Digital learning environments are standardized, giving students access to global knowledge and collaborative platforms. Maker spaces allow students to work practically, invent, and express creativity.
- Practice-Oriented Learning: Teaching is more aligned with real-world problems and challenges. Collaborations with businesses, universities, and cultural institutions provide practical, application-oriented projects.
- Secondary Level II (16 to 18 years, High School):
- In upper grades, students can follow individual learning paths. There’s no uniform curriculum, but flexible educational paths geared toward vocational preparation, academic learning, or creative projects.
- Dual Learning: Collaborations with universities and companies enable integration of academic learning and practical work experience.
- Interdisciplinary Degrees: Students choose topics combining various subjects, such as artificial intelligence, sustainability, or cultural studies, working on practical projects with mentors from industry and academia.
- Flexible Learning Environments:
Future school buildings are no longer rigid institutions but adaptable learning spaces tailored to students’ needs:
- Open Learning Landscapes: Traditional classrooms are replaced by flexible spaces, including project areas, relaxation zones, creative workshops, and digital labs used based on project or lesson needs.
- Nature-Integrated Schools: The school environment is closely connected to nature. Outdoor learning spaces, gardens, and environmental explorations are integral to teaching, fostering a deeper understanding of sustainability.
- Digital Infrastructure: All schools are fully digitized. Each student has access to personalized learning software tailored to their progress. Technology supports teaching but doesn’t replace it.
- Cross-Age Learning and Peer Learning:
- Future schools promote cross-age learning, with younger and older students working together on projects, fostering a strong collaborative learning process where older students take responsibility and younger ones are inspired.
- Peer Learning becomes a core component. Students teach and support each other, deepening knowledge and strengthening social skills.
- Interdisciplinary and Project-Based Learning Methods:
- Interdisciplinarity becomes a central principle of education. Students work on projects combining various subjects and themes, like climate change, urbanization, or technological innovations.
- Project-Based Learning (PBL): Teaching is organized in projects initiated by students and guided by mentors, often in collaboration with external partners from science and industry.
- Design Thinking and Problem-Solving: Students tackle real-world problems using creative methods like Design Thinking to develop innovative solutions.
- New Role for Teachers: Coaches and Mentors:
- Future teachers act less as traditional instructors and more as learning coaches and mentors, guiding students individually to achieve their learning goals.
- Team Teaching: Mentors from different disciplines collaborate to develop interdisciplinary projects, supporting each other and offering students a broader learning perspective.
- Strengthening Emotional and Social Skills:
- In the future, greater emphasis is placed on students’ emotional intelligence and social skills. Regular mediation, teamwork, and social learning are integrated into the curriculum to promote conflict resolution and collective responsibility.
- Cultural education is enhanced by integrating arts, theater, and music into daily learning.
- Evaluation and Performance Assessment:
- Traditional grading systems are replaced by competency-based assessments, evaluating students based on individual progress and problem-solving abilities.
- Portfolio Work: Students document their learning progress in digital portfolios, showcasing their strengths and projects.
- Self-Reflection and Peer Feedback become central components of assessment, promoting continuous learning and personal development.
The School Reform for 2050 in Saxony-Anhalt envisions a flexible, individual, and interdisciplinary educational landscape focusing on competency-based learning, cross-age collaboration, and strong connections between school and the real world. Technology is seen as a supportive tool, while emotional, social, creative, and practical problem-solving skills take center stage. This transformation requires schools to become open learning centers that nurture students’ individual interests and potential.
Demanding this form of education for our children and grandchildren is our generation’s responsibility. Write to your state’s education minister. Demand the best education for this and future generations!
Here Are the Current Addresses and Names of the Education Ministries and Ministers of the Mentioned States:
- Saxony-Anhalt:
Ministry of Education of Saxony-Anhalt
Leiterstraße 9
39104 Magdeburg
Education Minister: Eva Feußner (as of 2024)
- Saxony:
Saxon State Ministry of Education
Carolaplatz 1
01099 Dresden
Education Minister: Christian Piwarz (as of 2024)
- Thuringia:
Thuringian Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports
Willy-Brandt-Platz 1
99084 Erfurt
Education Minister: Mario Wendt (as of 2024)
Author: AI-Translation - Carla Kolumná | 08.09.2024
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