Teaching is usually an important part in a student teacher’s internship. However, if students speak a language you don’t speak and you only speak languages they don’t understand, this becomes slightly less obvious. Four science students from Arteveldehogeschool in Ghent accepted the challenge and decided to pursue their internship together with a team of local student teachers. They helped each other out with drafting lesson plans and exchanging pedagogical tips. However, teaching in schools turned out to pose too many linguistic and practical hurdles.
Instead we organized a series of lessons, originally dubbed “sessions” on science education, alternating between physics and biology. In each session the Belgian students discussed a science topic, focusing on innovative methodologies and low-cost experiments. After each session, we held a “round table” discussion on the chosen approach. Sessions were well attended by student teachers and were frequently visited by lecturers as well.
For biology, Elien and Karlien displayed a keen interest in all things dissection, choosing for their lessons dissections of the eye (from cow) and the lungs (from pig). Willem and Seppe organized among others a heat shield contest, during which student teams were challenged to build the most heat-resistant heat shield. Particularly well-liked was their final Game of the Goose board game, where student teams competed on their understanding of all previous sessions.
The sessions offered inspiring examples of learner-centered lessons to students and teachers. Whether they will find their way to lesson practice though remains to be seen, since lack of time is traditionally quoted as a main barrier. For us, it illustrated the value of having sufficient people on the ground and plenty of contact time in order to achieve results.
