As all of you already know, I am studying in Sweden this semester. Yesterday I had my first opportunity to observe a Swedish school, and follow a teacher around for the day. I was assigned to a year five classroom (10 to 11 year olds) and spent the day observing and helping. To summarize, I loved it. I never wanted to leave. The school system that is set up in Sweden is not only successful in teaching children the basic subjects, but it promotes a significant understanding and acceptance of internationalization and tolerance of all cultures.
The day started off with an English lesson. The teacher, L�sse, (who by the way is called by his first name by both the other teachers and the students), warned my friend Kaila and I that not all the children were proficient in English. We prepared ourselves for a long hour and a half, but when we arrived, we were shocked to see that L�sse’s idea of “not proficient” was America’s idea of bilingual. These 10 and 11-year-old students are truly incredible. Not only are they already fluent in Swedish, but also they are extremely proficient in English and were able to carry out conversations about everything and anything. We exchanged stories, told each other about our lives, and even discussed things not to say. L�sse shocked us by asking us to share swear words with the kids, and in a panic I simply shouted “Don’t say butthead!” L�sse also didn’t fail to tease me about being from Pittsburgh, the city of “losers”, however it was all in good fun!
After this class, the students had their first break of the day, which allowed the teachers to have a “fika” (Swedish coffee and snack break), in the biggest and nicest teachers lounge I have ever seen! We were able to talk to L�sse for a bit, and then returned to the class for an hour of free time. Some kids were finishing math assignments, others were reading, and others were playing a geography computer game. Kaila and I decided to oversee the geography game, and were yet again surprised to find that these children know more about the world’s geography than any American class I have seen. These Swedish students were scoring 100% on naming the states in the US and their capital cities!!!
Once the break time was over, we went to lunch and then got to watch some of the “textile/home-economics” class, where half of the students were in sewing class and the other half were in wood-shop. This class, which consisted of about half girls and half boys, was taking part in both sections of the class, which perhaps lessens the line between gender roles and allows the children to realize that although certain gender stereotypes exist, boys are perfectly capable of sewing and girls are perfectly capable of wood-work.
The next part of the day was perhaps the most exciting. Kaila and I were given the opportunity to interview L�sse, along with the head of Swedish as a second language program. We were able to discuss the pedagogical approaches that they both take to ensure inclusion in the classroom, and embracement of internationalization. L�sse told us of how he grew up in Nepal, and has a very different approach to teaching. He believes in allowing the children to be faced with difficult decisions and see how they can handle them. He has actually created several programs to allow for tolerance of different cultures. For example, he has set up a “whale done” program, where the children are meant to give positive reinforcement to each other (similar to how a trainer would train a killer whale) and the student who gives the most positive reinforcement receives a certificate. Another program is setting up an imaginary country. L�sse puts real-world problems (controversial issues facing the world) into this make-believe country and sees how the children solve it. Recently, L�sse visited Nepal and experienced the severe pollution they are currently experiencing. He brought this back to the school in Sweden, and the children came up with the idea of setting up a similar system to “Keep Sweden clean”, and surprisingly, thanks to this year five class, Nepal has recently implemented a very similar program. This teacher is truly inspirational! As far as Swedish as a second language goes, the woman in charge told me that in an ideal world, a student would learn half in Swedish and half in their native language, however due to the low percentage of Swedish as a second language students, this cannot occur. She claimed, however, that the key to success is to ensure that you are continually building the students abilities in Swedish and in their native language. One girl from in the class moved here three years ago, and recently took a Swedish language proficiency test, resulting in her scoring at the middle of the class! L�sse expressed that although this is excellent for her, is makes the Swedish students look bad, seeing as some students whose mother tongue is Swedish cannot perform higher than a pupil who has only just learned the language. L�sse said that should be the next goal of the education system in Sweden – to improve the performance of pupil’s Swedish in the classroom.
Overall, my experience was unbelievable, and I looking forward to doing my 5-week student teacher practice at this school in May!
Location: Jonkoping, Sweden