Discovering danish education second episode

Diversity vs Education vs Freedom

Hello everyone!

How are you today? Are you enjoying the cultural festival in Haderslev? I think so...;) Ehh I can speak from my own experience that I enjoyed it these days, but I will tell you how in the next episode because now I would like to focus more on the education. And I start talking about my last events I have participate at. Ok then... After I visited Fjordskolen from Aabenraa on Monday and met my psychologist teacher on Tuesday ( information which I gave you in the last episode), on Wednesday I assisted to a presentation held by Isabel, a teacher from Portugal. It was a nice presentation, she spoke about their educational system and while she was speaking I can say that I had the feeling of being home in my country. Why? because I could identify many common features between portuguese educational system and romanian educational system. They have the same structure of education, they use in universities Bologna education system which means only 3 years of university and 2 years of master. Hmm...I am not very proud of this system because I feel like I am runing through all the subjects and I don't have the time to focus on the information that I really need; the rhythm of studing is a little bit fast. It was interesting for me to meet Isabel because she is a clinical psychologist and after she finished her presentation I could have the opportunity to talk to her about this field. She was realy nice and now I can say that I am having an international experience here in Denmark;). On Thursday I went with Judit at school where she is doing the practice and was a nice coincidence to met Isabel there.I had the chance to farewell to her because in the afternoon she was going to Copenhagen and from there to Portugal. It was useful for me to visit that school because it's almost a normal school and now I can see the difference between a special school and a normal school. In my opinion the difference is not that big because I could see freedom in education in each one. In special schools is normal to exist more freedom in education because the children who attend these type of courses learn in another rhythm and they can't be force to do more than they can do or to respect some rules.I think that I was expected to see more authority from teachers in a normal school (maybe because I am used with the romanian educational system which is a little bit different) and it wasan't like this. Teachers are called by their first name and the position of chairs and tables is different becasue they are arranged in a way which allow pupils see one each other and they can easly communicate. It was great to see all these. In my country I have experienced this only at the college, in the others institutes like primary school, gymnasium and highschool things are more formal, the position of chairs and tables is in line which give you the possibility to see only the teacher and the colleague who sit next to you and this can make the communication harder sometimes. And my week ended with the visit at Skolen ved Stadion, a special school, which is located in the back of our college and which looks very pretty. It offers to the children very good conditions.They can have swimming lessons and most of them know how to swim even those affected by some disabilities.I was surprised to see that the school is not a private one and they've got all the equipements and materials they needed.

Discovering danish education system

Hello again!

Did you miss me?:) I hope yes:) because now I come with a different kind of story than you heard in the last message, is about school in Denmark...what do you think? it sounds interesting nuh? yes in fact it is really interesting to do your studies in Denmark. And now comes the question why? I will give you the answer: the education system is really nice because you have the possibility to follow a college without paying anything and also each student receives money in every month for living. This is great because you have all the time in the world to focus on your studies. On the other hand what I have noticed is the majority of practical things which students are doing at school, they learn only those pieces of information they need.

Now, I would like to talk a little bit about me, about what I am doing here. Well, how I have wrote in my profile I am interested in becoming a psihoterapeut and my coordinator, who is a really nice person made a special programme for me and gave me the opportunity to do many practical things than I do in my country. This means that I will go to do my practice in a school with autistic children. I have already been there this week on Monday to meet with the teachers who I will work with. I got to know the town a little bit, as well. Jens, the leader of the school, talked to me more about the activities and the projects which they do in order to involve all the children. He said that this school is a normal school because the pupils study all the subjects which are normaly studied in schools (maths, chemistry, phyisics, German, English).But the difference is on the way of teaching, the teachers have to pay attention on the rhythm of learning of every pupil. I have worked with autistic children for a month in my country but they were more autistic then the pupils from this school because those didn't have language, eye contact and they were agrassive with themselves. And it was a surprise for me that I could talk to them and not in their native language but in English. I attended at English class, it was so interesting because they asked me questions about Romania and actually we had a discussion on Dracula's story and Romanian's lifestyle. It was fantastic to see that they can have a normal life. Of course the work is hard but it worths and the teachers I have met with are so nice, you can see on their eyes the happiness of practicing this job:). I'm looking forward to spend my next week there.
I think it comes the time to finish my story but before I do it I want to say some words about my cognitive therapy class. I am very thankful to my coordinator for this class because my wish is to know more about therapy, about the way of using therapy with clients. And now I can see all these and actually I've got involved in one of my teacher's therapy session this week and for me this means one step in my future career ;).
Ending in a "cognitive style"( cognitive therapy= pozitive thoughts, optimism) I wish you all the best until next time!