Assistant teacher program/Practical philosophy

Practical philosophy
Practical philosophy is a school subject in North Rhine-Westphalia; the subject has a strong affinity to educational goals of an assistant teacher effort. The subject is meant as a substitute for the subject religion, similarly to the subject ethics.

Practical philosophy and assistant teachers
Chapter 5 "achievement evaluation" of the core curriculum specifies that the subject has no written examinations or other formal skill level ascertainments; learning outcome assessment is restricted to the evaluation of contributions to class education. Class education must therefore allow pupils to apply acquired competencies repeatedly and in varying contexts. Learning outcome assessment must allow understanding for individual learning progress and assess acquired competencies. Teachers should recommend individual learning strategies and help parents to understand ways to support their children. Longer, continuous contributions by single pupils or groups of pupils are typical of the subject.

The assistant teacher effort as a topic
An assistant teacher effort can be treated as a topic in practical philosophy, but this may become incompatible with the goal to separate the assistant teachers as an independent and self-governed organization. If the pupils are actively engaged in the planning phase of the assistant teacher effort they may quickly decide to demand democratic participation from the start. Advantages and disadvantages can be discussed by the participants; solutions to the problem should be easy to deduce.

Qualification in practical philosophy
The subject practical philosophy has by design a greater need for "longer, continuous contributions by single pupils or groups of pupils", which makes the subject a good choice for qualifying projects of assistant teacher candidates.

Germany

 * learnline.de: Praktische Philosophie - Das neue Unterrichtsfach, Kernlehrplan Juni 1997