Student Teaching Observation and Thoughts on Education in Sweden

[pennswoods]

I just completed my first week of teaching observations where I had the chance to observe my students teaching in 7th, 8th and 9th grade classrooms (the pupils were 13, 14 and 15 respectively). Some things stood out, and I'm not sure yet if I'm seeing a trend that signifies Swedish educational norms, or if this is just a few isolated cases. Some of

Comments

[holyfant]

Very interesting to read. :-) The Swedish system is probably closer to what I'm used to here than what you were used to in the States; the school here aren't fully responsible for school supplies (though part of the supplies do come from the schools and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds get everything for free) and teachers are addressed by Mr/Ms last name here. Other than that, everything you describe here is my daily practice as well.

I didn't know uniforms were so common in the US? When I was in highschool we still had a colour code we had to adhere to (dark blue and white), though not a real uniform, and in my fourth year the whole thing was abandoned altogether. There were the arguments that uniforms allowed for more social uniformity and less opportunities for bullying, but I think that on the whole pupils will be creative enough to still show individual variety in their uniforms and that they will always find reasons to pick on someone even if everyone's dressed the same.

The idea of having to go through a metal detector also upsets me, I must say. I know that some schools in the area of Brussels have started applying this kind of security recently because of an upsurge in urban tensions and violence and I think that's just terrible. I literally find it hard to imagine having to go to work in an environment where people have to be scanned for weapons, wow.