1st unit of work

Education in Europe and the global world. Good practice.

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HUMANITATE ETA

HEZKUNTZA ZIENTZIEN

FAKULTATEA

1ST UNIT OF WORK: LEARNING ABOUT THE BASQUE

EDUCATION SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION

Once that you have read the module’s

booklet we will set the main objectives of

this first unit of work.

Remember that in this module we will be

learning through the medium of English

about education and good practice in

Europe and the wider world.

Objectives of this unit of work:

• Learn to talk in English about basic concepts in education

• Learn about the Basque Education System.

Final task:

By the end of this unit of work, and taking into account the above mentioned objectives,

you should be able to fulfill the following tasks:

Individual final task

Basque education system description

Taking as a reference the text written after the first session and the different inputs

worked on throughout the unit of work (two articles on our Ed. System, work done in

class…), describe the Basque education system, in as much detail as possible, in a text

of between 500-700 words.

Make sure you use the right terms and that the text is yours, not a copy from the

different articles you have access to.

You should upload in Mudle this text for Wednesday/Thursday 19th/20th of January.


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BASQUE NON-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION SYSTEM

Before we start speaking about the Basque Education System, let’s see how much

vocabulary you know about education in English.

Step 1: Brainstorming

Individually think about all the terms you already know related to education and write

them down in the following space:

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Step 2: Sharing ideas

Get together in small groups and share your ideas. Try to complete your individual lists

with the ideas from other people in your group.

Name a secretary, he/she will go to the whiteboard and write down all your words.

Let’s try and organize all the words into different categories.

Step 3: Fill in

Using as a reference what you have learnt in previous modules (1.2/1.3) try to fill in the

following chart.

As in the previous exercise, you will do it individually first.

Basque education system When does compulsory education start in the Basque Country?

When do students leave obligatory education?

What options are there for pre-school? When do children start primary education?

When do they start secondary education? How long does it take?

What is the difference between private schools and state schools?

How many models of education are there in our school system? Explain the differences.

Who takes decisions in the Basqye


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education system? Local administrations? State administration? Both? Explain What do you know about special needs in the school system? Are there special projects or programmes?

Get together in small groups and discuss your answers. Try to write as much information

as you can.

Let’s share your ideas all together.

Non-contact hours work:

After the 1st class session:

You should do ALL this before your next class session

• Go to your reading booklet and read the article entitled: Structural Organization and

Features of the Basque Educational System.

• Answer the questions corresponding to the text that you will find in Mudle to be handed in

to your class tutor at the beginning of your next session.

• Now write a text of between 500-700 words, individually, describing what you know

about the Basque Education system answering to the following situation:

“You are a teacher at a school taking part in a European project (Comenius)

together with other European countries’ schools. Your first step in the project is

to get to know the different participants’ education systems, so for your first

meeting next month in Wroclaw (Poland), you should have sent the description

of your system in advance to all the other participants, so that they will have

read it for the meeting when they will be able to clarify any doubts about it.”

Upload your individual text onto Mudle in the corresponding task.

• Now move onto the following task: Preparing a presentation.

“Your meeting in Poland is getting closer. The first point in the agenda is all the

different systems presentations. In order to do so, you need to prepare a short

and clear power point presentation to take with you.”

Upload your individual presentation onto Mudle in the corresponding task.


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Non-contact hours work:

After doing the WIKI session:

You should do ALL this before your next class session

• Using your group wiki and taking as a reference the individual texts and PPTs produced

and uploaded onto Mudle, produce:

o A single group text on the Basque Education System.

o A single group presentation on the Basque Education System.

In both tasks you should be answering to the same situations as described in your

previously uploaded tasks.

Step 4: Jigsaw reading

For this activity you will need to be divided into 3 or 6 groups of 3 or 4 students. Your

tutor will tell you where in your “Reading Booklet” you will find the article to work on

(Mercator article) related to the Basque Education System.

You need to follow the next steps:

1. Each group gets one part of the article.

a. Introduction (pp 7-16)

b. Pre-school, primary, secondary and vocational (pp 17-23)

c. Higher, adult and educational research (pp. 24-32)

2. Read it and understand it.

3. Synthesize the main ideas so that everybody will be able to talk and explain

them later, individually.

The following chart will help you to get the main ideas:

Geographical location and demographic profile

Overall population

Minority language %

Schools ages

The education system

Start of compulsory schooling

Private pre-schooling


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State pre-schooling

The education system

Primary school

Secondary school

School leaving age

Language education

Tendencies in linguistic models and

development

Teacher training

From Bilingualism to Multilingualism

In-migration (immigration) tendencies.

4. Cross groups and exchange information in new groups.

5. As you listen to the other members or your new group, take notes in order to

complete the entire chart. That information will help you with your final task in this

unit of work.

Non-contact hours work: Individual Final task

Basque education system description

Taking as a reference the text written after the first session and the different inputs

worked on throughout the unit of work (two articles on our Ed. System, work done in

class…), describe the Basque education system, in as much detail as possible, in a text of

between 500-700 words.

Make sure you use the right terms and that the text is yours, not a copy from the different

articles you have access to.

You should upload in Mudle this text for Wednesday/Thursday 19th/20th of January.

1st unit of work

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