Our school “Hufeland-Schule” is in Berlin-Buch, the very north-east of Berlin. It is a secondary school with about 200 students. As it is a school for integration the classes are small. In most classes are students with problems in learning or social life. But we have quite a few teachers which are trained to work with these students.
A major part of our school is focussing on occupational orientation. That means that a part of the students goes regularly out into enterprises in order to learn in real situations.
One of these projects is our PRODUCTIVE LEARNING.
We started in Summer 2005 with 22 students, two teachers and two communication groups. Now we are 35 students in four communication groups. It is an offer for students which have dropped out of school for many reasons. Negative experiences at school, frustration, fear of failure determined the school life of most students.
In Productive Learning the students get the opportunity to build a new basis for their future by combining theoretical work at school with practical experiences in enterprises and by co-determination of their individual learning schemes.
In Productive Learning the students go and learn at practical placements for three days a week. The other two days they are at school where they write and discuss about their experiences but also learn the things they need in their enterprises (e.g. in mathematics).
At the moment there are 35 students in Productive Learning. All of them are organized in certain Communication Groups. Their educator teaches most subjects and visits them regularly at their practical placements. Here he/she discusses problems with the students or helps them with their theoretical work.
Work experience is a central part of Productive Learning. The students learn to know their abilities and to compare them to the needs of moderns society.
At the end of the trimester every student hands in a folder with his or her theoretical work about the practical placement.
Productive Learning is a good opportunity for those who want to learn in a practical way and who want to get more occupational orientation than in ordinary schools.
