Austrian teachers' reports
Report about discussion with visiting AT student teacher and teacher
The discussion began with looking at several video clips chosen from the teaching episodes that the trainee teachers and the in-service teacher did in the Danish schools, as well as several clips of the preparation course. It was then decided to start discussing the preparation course, then have a break and continue with the teaching episodes.
Preparation course
The participants enjoyed particularly the relaxed atmosphere of the course. The course was created for the purpose of preparing the participants to go to a particular school and teach a particular topic. This made it easy to have focused course content instead of a general “teaching abroad” course. The participants particularly liked the discussion and preparation of the teaching materials in group work, so the lessons they taught were really “their own”. It was also mentioned that the long list of phrases (files Conducting a lesson in English/German) was useful, though most of the phrases are probably known by a speaker with the language competence we were looking for.
Teaching abroad
It was again mentioned how important it was for the visiting teachers to have had the possibility of watching the teaching of the regular teacher in the classroom before the actual teaching episodes. A longer period for these observations would have been advisable. It was also mentioned that a good contact with the hosting teacher was very important for the visit to be a success. Everybody mentioned that the problems that were anticipated the most – being stuck on the language while having to explain something – was actually not a real problem in the teaching episodes. Even at the few times when language difficulties appeared it did not lead to a particular problem in the teaching process, also because the pupils were very aware of the special circumstance the visiting teachers are in and were always ready to help out. What turned out to be difficult was the difference in the teaching styles in Danish and Austrian classrooms. This problem was not anticipated before the visit. Particularly the trainee teachers had difficulties adjusting in their first lesson, but found their own teaching style very soon. In all, the visiting teachers agreed that the teaching of Mathematics in a foreign language is a joyful and achievable task, given a good and focused preparation course.
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Group work.