The Swiss teachers’ associations continue to advocate radical structural reforms. In this way they want to escape the deficits that they helped to cause. But it’s not because of the structures, it’s because of the effectiveness of the school – and that starts in the classroom. The FDP Switzerland’s educational policy policy paper is no coincidence.
Carl Bossard
Education is important. That’s what everyone says. And Switzerland is putting a price on this asset: the federal government, cantons and municipalities spent 41.3 billion francs on educational purposes in 2021, almost twice as much as in 2000. At that time it was 22.1 billion. We afford the most expensive education system in the world. For good reason: education is vital for our interior country.
Interest in ineffective surface features
Switzerland is investing a lot. And yet Dagmar Rösler, the top teacher in Switzerland, always demands only one thing for every problem in everyday school life: “More money! More resources!” The additive in finance! This call comes from her lips like a prayer wheel. For years. At the same time, as the Central President of Swiss Teachers (LCH), she constantly advocates for further and sometimes radical structural reforms – together with Thomas Minder, the President of the Association of School Principals Switzerland (VSLCH).
Both equate education with their reform – as if structural innovations could solve all problems. They operate at the macro level, an area that is not essential to the success of the lesson; Both surface features are important, external appearances. It is structural reforms that they are pushing for, such as abolishing grades and eliminating homework, breaking up classes or eliminating selection.
Promote comprehension learning and reading
The exponents of LCH and VSLCH are primarily concerned with structural issues at the macro level. But this is cosmetic and has little to do with the processes of thinking, understanding and ability. The depth characteristics of the learning processes are educationally effective. We know this from teaching research. But we hardly hear anything about it from either of them. Research results from educational science have long suggested that we should (re)reflect on the core of school, on teaching that is effective in learning. It is the paths to knowledge, the learning paths of thinking and understanding and penetrating something that would be important.
But how do these processes of understanding and applying knowledge and skills come about? How do cognitive processes arise, how do insights and contextual knowledge arise? What form of teaching promotes understanding learning? And the so important “understanding reading”? The teachers’ associations should be interested in this! They would have to zoom in! And consistently. But we hardly hear anything about it.
Learning processes: systematically built and structured
From learning psychology we know the phases of the classic learning process. Learning is always about problem-driven development of new knowledge and skills through recognition and understanding – for example, the challenging ten-number transition. These are complex processes, as is working through consolidating and strengthening: retaining. This includes practicing and repeating and recalling and applying what has been learned in different situations.
The learning researcher and Bern university professor Prof. Hans Aebli coined the acronym PADÜA for this: pproblems Abuild, Dartillery work, Üben, Aapply. (1) These are all systematically constructed, structured and guided learning processes. The thinking and developmental psychologist Aebli combines it with five different media – including speaking, reading and writing – and the corresponding specialist learning content. This is where the secret of good learning lies.
The systematically structured learning process with Hans Aeblis PADÜA (Graphic: zVg)
On the desystematization of learning
School effectiveness requires a consistent system; there should be no chance learning. Renowned learning researchers point this out. However, many teachers feel that the numerous reforms of the past few years have de-systematized learning, namely through forced individualization and self-organized learning SOL, the devaluation of the teacher as an accompanying coach and through increased heterogeneity in the classes.
Well-known educational researchers warned early on about this de-systematization of learning, including Prof. Franz E. Weinert, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich, (2) and the German educational scientist Prof. Andreas Helmke. The consequences can be seen in the international comparative studies PISA or, for example, in the complaints from teachers (3) and university lecturers. (4) The rapid increase in private learning institutes is also a warning sign. What is needed is counteraction and a concentration on effective teaching with clear commitments.
Focus on the core of the school
But the commitment of these learning processes is decreasing. Many people feel this, including parents. The FDP Switzerland’s basic education policy paper (5) does not come out of the blue. It is a reaction to the declining effectiveness of public elementary schools.
We need a (re)reflection on the actual and essential nature of teaching, the core processes of learning. They lie in the depth features. The teachers’ associations should focus primarily on this – and not on structural issues in the macro area. This didn’t require more resources all the time.
Literature and sources
- Hans Aebli (2019), Twelve basic forms of teaching. A general didactics based on psychology. Media and content of didactic communication, the learning cycle. 15th edition Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, p. 275ff.
- Franz E. Weinert (1996), Pros and cons of the “new learning theories” as the basis of educational-psychological research, in: Journal of Educational Psychology, 10 (1), p.8f
- Nadja Pastega, “It’s partly frightening,” in: SonntagsZeitung, December 3rd, 2023.
- This. Now even students can no longer speak German properly, in: SonntagsZeitung, November 27th, 2022.
- [abgerufen: 27.09.2024]
