Democratic Education Shaping Teacher Education: Importance of the community
In this section, you can find a lesson to conduct with teacher trainees.
Four concepts that will be discussed in the lesson: learner motivation and assessment (two related concepts), descriptive and specific feedback, experiential learning/learning by doing, key competencies and developmental continuum.
- The target group: teacher trainees
- The length of the lesson: 3 x 45 mins
Teachers’ Guide
Lesson structure
1. Introduction to four concepts that will be discussed in the lesson:
- A. educational ecosystems,
- B. democracy in education,
- C. changing the educational paradigm,
- D. well-being at school.
Students read articles so that four even groups can be created for follow-up discussions.
Task: Read the article and make notes connected to the questions and the keywords. How does what you read relate to your experience as a student/teacher?
2. Discussion – four different groups: students who have read the same article, discuss this article based on questions and keywords presented by the teacher.
Task: Discuss the article you have read. Answer the questions. Work with the keywords and with how they relate to what you have read and also to what you might have experienced as a student/teacher.
3. Discussion – new groups – each group needs to have such students that all the four articles are presented in each of the groups.
Task: Discuss the articles you have read in your groups.
- A. Present to the other students the main thoughts in your article, your answers to the questions, your group´s thoughts over the keywords.
- B. Look for differences and similarities, not only among the articles but also among your experiences and ways of thinking about these matters.
- C. Create a mind map of your thoughts connected to the four articles you have discussed. Prepare how to present these to the other groups.
- D. Whole class activity, presenting the mind maps and follow-up discussions.
4. Watch videos/a video that were/was made in Labyrinth, Brno, the first laboratory school in the Czech republic.
Task: Watch a video that has been made in Labyrinth, Brno, the first laboratory school in the Czech republic. In your original group (as in point 2), discuss what you have observed. Prepare a presentation of your main thoughts.
- A. Watch the video and think about how it relates to the article your group read at the beginning of this lesson. While doing so, bear in mind the keywords and the key points that we have discussed in this lesson and that relate to the angle your article takes.
- B. In your group, discuss your thoughts.
- C. In your group, prepare how you are going to present your video and how it relates to the theory studied in today´s lesson. Prepare a five-minute presentation.
5. Final presentations and follow-up discussions.
Task: Present your presentations to the whole class. Discuss.
The teacher leads the conversation in such a way that opinions get expressed, questions get asked and the class´s thoughts get summarized.