What are the students’ prerequisites?
Students at our university study to become teachers in university-track secondary schools, that is teaching pupils with an age range of 10 to 18 years. They can choose between two areas of teaching: university-track secondary schools or vocational schools. They, furthermore, choose to focus on two subjects, which they will then study from both a technical and didactic perspective and also take classes in pedagogics.
Students can also choose to focus on Special Education, which prepares them for teaching children with special needs at both primary and secondary schools.
The Leibniz University Hannover uses a Bachelor’s and Master’s system, which takes approximately 5 years; 3 years for the Bachelor´s and then a further 2 years for the Master´s programme.
When they come to your school, they will have already completed the first half of their Bachelor’s programme, thus, coming into the experience highly motivated and ready to try out their skills.
The three teacher training courses offered at Leibniz University:
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Bachelor and Master Teacher Education University-Track Secondary Schools
Prospective teachers in university-track secondary schools study two subjects (with both a technical and didactic component) and school pedagogics and psychology. The school subjects offered at Leibniz University are:
Biology, Chemistry, Performing Arts, German, English, Geography, Protestant or Catholic Theology, History, Computer Science, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Ethics, Spanish, Sports.
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Bachelor and Master Special Education
Prospective special education teachers study Special Education and a school subject. At Leibniz University Hannover, the subject of Special Education is offered with content from the following four subject areas: education for persons with emotional and social development difficulties, education for persons with mental development difficulties, education for persons with learning difficulties and education for the speech impaired.
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Bachelor and Master Teacher Education for Vocational Schools
Prospective teachers at vocational schools study a professional specialisation (with both a technical and didactic component) and a school subject. The six professional specialisations offered at Leibniz University are:
- Building Technology
- Electrical Engineering
- Colour technique and interior design
- Wood Technology
- Food Science
- Metal Technology
Internship standards
In all teacher education degrees, it is possible to complete at least one school internship abroad. However, internships are not recognised at the Leibniz School of Education, but by the responsible persons in the departments.
The following internships can officially be completed abroad:
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Bachelor school internship (University-Track Secondary Schools)
- at least a 4-week full-time school internship (a minimum of 25 hours per week),
- an internship report has to be written by the intern, the students get previously prepared for this task at university,
- as many class hours as possible (both sitting in on lessons and supervised teaching), sitting in on lessons in their other subject, if possible, too,
- participation in all fields of school life if their attendance is in compliance with school regulations, e.g. conferences, excursions, field trips, parents' evenings, extra-curricular activities etc.,
- the students are to do further exploratory and reflective tasks, assigned by their lecturers.
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Bachelor school internship (Vocational Schools)
- at least a 4-week full-time school internship (a minimum of 25 hours per week),
- an internship report has to be written by the intern, the students get previously prepared for this task at university,
- as many class hours as possible (both sitting in on lessons and supervised teaching), sitting in on lessons in their other subject, if possible, too,
- participation in all fields of school life if their attendance is in compliance with school regulations, e.g. conferences, excursions, field trips, parents' evenings, extra-curricular activities etc.,
- the students are to do further exploratory and reflective tasks, assigned by their lecturers.
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Bachelor Special Education
Observation internship
- at least a 3-week full-time internship (a minimum of 25 hours per week),
- aiming at the observation and support of learning and development processes,
- a portfolio has to be created by the intern, the students get previously prepared for this task at university,
- prepared by a whole semester preparatory course and accompanied by a tutorial,
- can be carried out in school or at extracurricular special education institutions as a block internship or semester-accompanying.
Internship in a specific field of special education
- at least a 3-week full-time internship (a minimum of 25 hours per week)
- can be carried out in a school or an extracurricular institution.
- aims on the support of learning and development processes in a specific field of special education which can be one of the following:
Emotional and social development difficulties, mental development difficulties, learning difficulties and speech impairment.
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Other internships
In some cases, Master internships can also be completed abroad. This depends on the individual agreement with the responsible persons for recognition of the internships in the different institutes. The Master internships in secondary and vocational education focus on only one subject and include extensive teaching practice.
Prerequisites for Schools Abroad
It is recommended to establish a first contact partner at your school, who will oversee the essential communication tasks throughout the course of the internship. We would like to then kindly ask this contact partner to give feedback on possible problems, for example, illness/absence, organisation, etc. We would also like to ask her/him to give feedback on the intern’s performance. This would also be beneficial for the intern her/himself.
Furthermore, there should also be a teacher of the intern’s subject, who could prospectively mentor him/her and who is willing to take some time out of their week to regularly meet with him/her to provide help and advice.
We thank you very much for your interest and look forward to collaborating with you!
