Vocational school without instruction? Project work in the training to become a state-approved educator

Challenges and successes

During the project stage, we faced various challenges, despite careful risk analyses. This was also reflected in our trend indicators, which were documented in transcripts. Some of us longed for regular lessons in the meantime, but today we can say that we worked together constructively as a group and realised successful projects.

Diverse and sustainable project ideas

Our projects were always orientated towards the goals of an education for sustainable development. Here is a brief overview of some of our ideas:

As part of the ‘Little chefs - a recipe book’ project, we have compiled an age-appropriate collection of recipes for use in primary schools (kindergartens). The instructions for preparing food were presented step by step using illustrations, as the target group usually has little to no reading skills. In practice, the design we used proved to be quite effective; the children were able to prepare various snacks with the help of our instructions without any particular difficulty.

In our project ‘Gender roles: recognising prejudices and promoting diversity’, we looked at the 5th ESD goal of gender equality. We organised an introductory meeting and a lesson for the class AVSH 23a. We devised and designed the games we used ourselves. Our project was about raising awareness of prejudices in relation to gender equality in different jobs. To present the results, we created a handout to enable other educational professionals to pick up on this topic with our material. For example, there was the prejudice matrix game, in which the young people were asked to form prejudices that they were most familiar with. After the game, the results were reflected upon. This stimulated many discussions in class. All in all, the project went down well with the class and we received a lot of positive feedback.

In our project ‘Fit for bees - an oasis of convenience for animals’, we built a raised bed together with primary school children, planted bee-friendly flowers, installed a rain barrel and made several water holes. We discussed the ESD goals with the primary school children and created large posters on the following topics: bees, flowering meadows, sustainable irrigation and the need for water holes to promote knowledge about sustainability.

As part of our ‘Climate detectives’ project, we looked at the topic of ‘How our eating habits affect the climate’. We visited a weekly market with children from after school care centres and used a treasure hunt to collect information about regional and seasonal fruit and vegetables, which we then gathered and visualised using a map of Germany and the world.

The textile industry is considered the third largest source of water pollution. In our project ‘Clothing artists - children transform old clothes into new treasures’, we carried out an upcycling project with children of primary school age using old clothes. We also worked on the theoretical level with the children in connection with the redesign of products made from old clothing. We discussed the impact that the production of clothing, its transport to Germany and its disposal have on the environment and reflected together on how everyone can make a contribution to our sustainable use of clothing.

We were able to use the lessons in learning fields 1, 4 and 5 as well as in some optional classes for our projects throughout the entire period. The other lessons took place according to the timetable. Not quite school without lessons, but still educational and worth the experience. We had to juggle between a lot of creative freedom, our different ideas, the necessary documentation and cooperation partners.

The children and young people who took part in the activities obviously had a lot of fun and were highly motivated when discussing, sewing, building, planting, baking… To summarise, it can be said that the children and young people were sensitised and encouraged with regard to various ESD goals. There will surely be plenty of creative and interesting ideas again next year. We are looking forward to that.

Class FS22a with the teachers Signe Jonatzke and Johanna Matz