education – Page 6 – understand-culture

German elementary schools

Deutsche Welle – Do you know your Gymnasium from your Gesamtschule? The German school system is certainly complicated. For this week’s Meet the Germans, Rachel heads back to the classroom to get to grips with the different types of schools and to find out what kids like about going to school in Germany.

Rachel moved from the UK to Germany in 2016. As a relative newcomer she casts a fresh eye over German clichés and shares her experiences of settling into German life. Every two weeks she explores a new topic – from German books to German-Turkish culture or Germany’s obsession with cars. This week: German schools and the education system.

Duale Ausbildung

Apprenticeship System (Duale Ausbildung). The dual education system is a model of structured, objective feedback: apprentices receive regular, formal evaluations based on skill mastery and performance; feedback is standardized, unemotional, and focused on professional development; personal feelings are set aside; the focus is on competencies and meeting professional standards.

Flexibility and Independence

Under the title “What American universities can learn from German universities,” Mark Roche, Professor of German studies at the University of Notre Dame, writes:

“Intellectual independence, knowledge as an end in itself, high regard for the humanities: the German university system could serve as a model for the United States in many ways.

What can the United States learn? First, student flexibility and independence, both characteristics of the German university tradition, are important principles of learning. Students learn more when they have to demonstrate independence and initiative.

Before the reform of European universities (the so-called Bologna Process), German students had the freedom to devote themselves to intellectual questions in an organic way, in a manner quite different from the student mentality at most American universities.

There (in American universities), students are given a lot of homework that does not encourage them to delve deeper into a topic for its own sake or to pursue further questions arising from their studies on their own initiative.

Thanks to their education in independence, the best German students proved to be highly motivated and responsible. Self-education requires freedom.”

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 13, 2015.

6 months, 80-120 pages

At many German universities, the following rule of thumb applies: achelor’s theses are 40 to 60 pages long, and Master’s theses are around 80 to 120 pages. Some universities also specify the expected scope in words, which is then between 15,000 and 20,000 words.

Still others only specify the processing time, but do not express any limitation in terms of the number of pages or words. Depending on whether you are writing your Master’s thesis in three or six months, you can use the following rules of thumb as a guide: 3 months processing time = 60-80 pages, 6 months processing time = 80-120 pages