My module ‘Education and School Practice’ has finally started this week and our lecturer Ulla has given us some background information about the course, the Swedish school system and the curriculum. It has been quite enjoyable to listen and learn about the Swedish curriculum and I am looking forward to learning more about it as it will be interesting to compare it to Northern Ireland’s curriculum to see if there will be any similarities. I have found out that during this module I will visit a school that has a lot of children from immigrant backgrounds therefore they do not speak Swedish and have limited understanding of English. I think that this will be really good for me to do as there are not many children in schools in Northern Ireland with English as an additional language (EAL) or children from immigrant backgrounds. It is good to get this experience whilst in Sweden and it will also help me with my career in the future.
Throughout this week our class had a wonderful opportunity to meet with Dr. Wim Voskuilen, a teacher trainer from the Instituut Theo Thijssen Hogeschool Utrecht in Holland. He happened to be visiting schools in Vänersborg, Trollhättan and Gothenburg and also University West for two days. He gave us a short PowerPoint presentation on the Montessori approach to education which is a long tradition in The Netherlands. I feel that I have learnt a lot about Montessori education in this short amount of time and I found it intriguing to listen to how the children have free choice of what they do in the classroom and a lot of their time is spent working independently rather than in groups like Northern Ireland. The children are also split into heterogeneous groups which is a big difference from how schools in Northern Ireland work as it is not desirable in Northern Ireland to have composite classes. It was great to listen to Wim talk about Montessori schools and the teaching methods that teachers use and it is something I never knew existed until now therefore I have definitely learnt something knew this week!
As well as learning about the Montessori approach to teaching our class has also focused on Special Educational Needs and learning difficulties as well as the transition of a child/adolescent with SEN to adulthood. From previously visiting three special needs schools in Sweden I found that I actually remembered a lot of the things that teachers had told me and from studying the readings we were given I realised that a lot of the learning tools that are put in place for children with Special Educational Needs are similar to those that we use in Northern Ireland but that there are restrictions for resources due to finance.
Overall it has been an educational week for me and not quite as relaxing as last week but I have learnt a lot of new and interesting things about Swedish education and different ways of teaching. Despite being in class there is always time to socialise and enjoy the company of the other Erasmus students by visiting the park or having a BBQ.
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