Comenius assistants in Europe

The Comenius assistants in Europe blog will be published in March 2011. The aim of the blog is to share the experiences of two Comenius assistants, a Finnish one working in a school in Belgium and a Belgian one in Finland. The authors’ views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of CIMO.

Comenius Assistantship – nothing to lose, everything to gain

Since I started in my lukio seven months ago I have had a lot of intense teaching moments. Being in front of the class has already changed me as a person, has improved my abilities as teacher and most certainly has given me a look into Finland’s renowned education system.

Thereby I couldn’t agree more with what Annika said about skills, respect and manners in Belgian education. In Finland parents aren’t so concerned anymore about their children in Lukio and teachers are not that close with their students. Of course, a lot can be drawn back to the Finnish education system, that doesn’t have the small and close class groups anymore and students are expected to be more independent, mature and efficient.

Besides, also culture plays a prominent role in this educational matter. In many ways the Belgian culture is still more family minded, what eventually implicates less individualism, less direct competition and more actual freedom for teachers and students.

Aside from the differences in education systems, reflecting about something that hasn’t finished yet is rather difficult. Writing about my assistantship during the last weeks has made me to realize the achievements and shortcomings I initially aimed for. After rereading my application, I can say I achieved most of my premised objectives as I taught many different subjects, led conversation classes, supported teachers and offered my lukio a wider Belgian-European view on several levels.

Facing my shortcomings, I will have to try to do more extracurricular activities such as organizing afterschool events and extra tutorial classes where culture, history and everyday life can go into dialogue.

Though, after all I think my assistantship has been exactly like it should be: an exciting new and life changing experience, where I’ve learned a lot from amazing colleagues and interesting students. Still I hope as well that teachers and students in my lukio will look back and see the new perspectives that I offered them throughout my assistantship.

Arne Verhaegen

I am working as a Comenius teaching assistant at Valkeakosken Tietotien Lukio, which is an upper secondary school in Valkeakoski near Tampere, in the south of Finland. I started my assistantship in September 2010 and I am staying until June 2011. I have a Masters in History and a teacher’s degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In Finland I have the opportunity to teach besides History also English, German, French and PE.