Talk:Assistant teacher program/Forum

The following content was salvaged from User:Fasten's user space as concepts behind development of the assistant teacher program. It provides historical perspective.

Idea

The assistant teacher course could aim at pupils between grade seven and grade eight. The goal of the course would be to train further aspects of teaching beyond the goals of (e.g.) learning by teaching. The pupils should learn to act in concert as a group of assistant teachers in a classroom, to apply metacognition and to follow pedagogical goals in their contact with other pupils. The participants should also learn to make some steps towards self-management and independent learning and should be qualified to train other assistant teachers.

A voluntary kindergarten internship could, besides sufficient grades, be required as a precondition for participation. The course could, for example, be imagined as the central theme of a summer camp or summer school.

Schools

Schools could either use the course to implement their own assistant teacher courses or participate in an assistant teacher program offered by a parents' society, school district association or other provider. A mode for participation could be that schools selected an initial group of pupils from grade seven as participants. Selection of a small number of pupils (e.g. 5 in 100) could be seen as unfair but motivation may sometimes be more valuable than utmost fairness. In this case the status of assistant teacher can provide learning motivation for the whole grade before and after the initial training.

(Unfairness could be seen as having beneficial psychological effects in the potential reassignment of the least proficient pupils or as motivation for pupils to establish their own process against a process designed to irritate. Avoiding tracking could also be seen as valuing utmost fairness over motivation.)

Book project

The participants develop their own assistant teacher manual in order to promote reflection on the topic of assistant teacher education. The manual can later be used for assistant teacher education in the respective schools of the participants. A book project in this age group should be guided by a knowledgeable adult as chief editor.

A service provider attitude and code of conduct developed by the pupils can help to establish a purpose and make education more meaningful for pupils.

Questions

The course can assume that pupils are free to make all decisions that can be reasonably be expected from pupils, a derived course can limit the available choices. The Wikiversity course could also serve as a way for course instructors of derived courses to give feedback to the general public.

Comment: Deciding on "secret goals" (e.g. meritocracy to motivate democracy) could also have negative psychological effects for the confidants that may not be immediately apparent (e.g. unconscious segregation). Should there be recommendations about keeping "secret goals" secret? (One could probably see this as a further motivation for a subject psychology)

• Should the assistant teachers of a grade form a meritocracy and turn it into a democracy only after most pupils had become assistant teachers or should the democratic committees of the grade govern the affairs of assistant teachers from the outset? (A meritocracy may have the effect to require frequent revision of policies when new assistant teachers join the group. Is that an advantage or disadvantage? A meritocracy can also motivate other pupils to form a democratic council and to overrule the meritocracy. Even having failed to do so can provide motivation to improve democratic participation in retrospect.)
• What are the obligations of assistant teachers towards pupils and teachers? How should the obligations be phrased in order to invite new assistant teachers to appreciate these obligations?
• Should assistant teachers specify a noncommittal criteria catalog for the disqualification of assistant teachers through teachers? What are the psychological effects if assistant teachers agree on self-imposed demands as recommendations for teachers?
• Should assistant teachers form several groups and allow coopetition between groups? What aspects could be competitive and what aspects could be cooperative?
• Should assistant teachers initiate a junior mentoring program? (as, for instance, in the Eduard-Spranger-Schule in Reutlingen, where pupils in the eighth grade mentor migrant children in primary school (http://www.blk-demokratie.de/materialien/praxisbausteine/bausteine/mentorenprojekt-betreuung-von-grundschulkindern-mit-migrationshintergrund-durch-aeltere-schuelerinnen-baden-wuerttemberg.html%7Cblk-demokratie.de)