Alternative education

In this course you will be introduced to the contexts, theory and practice of alternative schools. This course is very interesting for teacher training students as well as for starting professionals: What kind of teacher do you want to be? You will discover and discuss different views on learning and on the development of children and what this means for the school system in primary and secondary schools.

Since long the Netherlands have had a leading position in the field of alternative education. An important feature of the Dutch education system is the so-called ‘freedom of education’. This freedom results in a diversity of confessional and public schools and in a great variety of pedagogic-educational concepts. This means that there are a lot of interesting good practices to learn about. And that is exactly what you are going to do in this course: learn and observe how it works! By expert meetings, workshops and school visits you will find out about the main characteristics of the various concepts. What can you use and introduce in your own school at home?

Within the Dutch education system, alternative pedagogy takes an important place.
Many parents choose a school for their child based on the ideas of Maria Montessori, Helen Parkhurst, Peter Petersen, or Celestin Freinet. The most recent developments (from the end of the 20th century) are schools based on the educational concept of `het Nieuwe Leren’ (independent learning).

These educational concepts share the idea that the foundation of education and pedagogy is having confidence in children. Children must have room to develop their own potential. Within these concepts, ideas such as independence and responsibility for oneself as well as for others play an important part. In all these alternative schools children’s needs and the relationship with the teacher are dealt with in an innovative way.

After this course you will go home with a lot of new ideas and inspiration to teach your own pupils in ‘the alternative way’! A quote from a student who participated last year in the course: ‘Very inspiring and useful course! It gave me a lot of new ideas to practise in my classroom!’

» Download the day-to-day programme (PDF)