What teachers need to know

The teaching profession is one of the most beautiful in the world. And without doubt one of the most demanding. Being a teacher means reflecting on this time and again,

• that learning takes place in relationships and that children and teachers need to feel comfortable with each other.
• Teachers can only relate to pupils if they are relaxed, have energy reserves and experience their own work as meaningful.
• People have needs for self-efficacy, autonomy, connectedness, security and meaning - and both children and teachers only enjoy going to school if these needs are adequately met.
• children disengage from the learning process if feelings such as fear, shame, pressure and anger are associated with it or if they feel like failures.

Teachers have to «pull through» a tightly packed programme of material, while relationship work and fostering the learning environment often fall by the wayside.

These aspects often fade into the background in everyday life. Teachers have to «get through» a tightly packed programme of subjects, cater for different children at the same time, carry out educational work, complete extensive administrative tasks and sometimes work together with demanding parents. Sometimes the essentials - relationship work, needs, learning atmosphere - fall by the wayside. The new video project, which the Elternsein Foundation is realising together with psychologists and learning experts Stefanie Rietzler and Fabian Grolimund, aims to provide a platform for these aspects. The film series aims to provide background knowledge and show teachers how to deal with burning questions.

Close to everyday life and practical

As a first step, Fabian Grolimund and Stefanie Rietzler wanted to know from 400 teachers which questions they would like concrete answers to that are suitable for everyday use. It became clear, for example, that over 75 per cent of the teachers surveyed would like to know more about how they can create a pleasant learning atmosphere and promote the motivation of children and young people without resorting to reward and punishment systems.

A similar number would like suggestions on how they can promote their pupils' independence and self-efficacy, improve cohesion in the classroom and encourage weaker children.
In a second step, twelve episodes have been produced since last October, each focussing on one question. The films can be viewed at www.fritzundfraenzi.ch under the heading «Videos & Podcasts» and on YouTube.

The episodes already published deal with the following topics:

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