4th International Conference

"Affective Education in Europe"

Conference Report

Introduction

The 4th International Conference "Affective Education in Europe" was held at the Europaische Akademie in Otzenhausen, Saarland, Germany from 4th to 11th October 1998. It was organized by GGG-FELS (Fortbildung fur Eltern, LehrerInnen und SchulerInnen), EAO (Europaische Akademie Otzenhausen e. V.), and the Maison de l'Europe Robert Schumann, Scy-Chazelles and sponsored by the Bundeszentrale fur politische Bildung, the Europaischen Kommission, the Gemeinnutzige Gesellschaft Gesamtschule Saar, the Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung, the Regierung des Saarlandes and the Okofond Saar.

The conference was opened by Ms Doris Pack, MP. In her opening speech Ms Pack, pointed out the European dimension as well as the need for just such initiatives as those manifested by this conference in Europe as it is currently emerging.

Klaus Domde (Bundnis 90/The Greens) encouraged the participants in pursuing their intentions and spoke of the role that Saarland might possibly play in a newly emerging Europe.

State Secretary Burghard Schneider received the participants in the Saarland State Chancellery and lent the conference. The factual knowledge he demonstrated during his speech took the guests by surprise and at the same time convinced them that the invitation represented not merely a generous gesture but also a well-informed acknowledgement of their work.

Aims of the Conference

The aim of affective education is to help young people mature into well-balanced, flexible, and responsible citizens. In contrast to more cognitive educational approaches, this process focuses on personal social development as well as the adoption of cultural values, abilities, and skills. It must include students' attitudes and feelings, motivations and beliefs. Affects are manifestations of the "soul set in motion" by desire and pain--emotions such as hatred, love, courage, anxiety, envy, jealousy, pity, sympathy, longing, fear, rage, empathy, hope, sadness, happiness. "Education after Auschwitz" is affective education.

In schooling practice educators still fail to acknowledge the full significance of this dimension in the teaching and learning process, thereby rendering the educational process as a whole less effective. With this conference our primary aim was to make a contribution to strengthening the influence of the affective dimension in teaching practices and educational planning.

During the course of the week we intended to explore aspects of personal growth and develop suggestions for fostering the process. We paid special attention to higher-level educational objectives, as well as on the strategies that various European nations employ to integrate the affective dimension into their educational planning. We also intended to investigate academic instruction and curricula with regard to the affective dimension of learning, searching for opportunities to link learning objectives to personality development.

During the conference we realized that the next challenge we would face would be to integrate eastern European countries into our organization, aspiring as it does to represent a unified Europe.

Planning and Conception of the Conference

To achieve these goals we organized the conference into two phases. During the first phase different groups were formed, each of which was to work continuously on one of the following themes:

* From Instructional Institutions to Living Schools

* From Dead Curricula to Living Learning

* Intercultural and Multi-Cultural Education (this theme, however, was not given separate attention)

* From Student Subservience to Personal Strength and Student Solidarity

The members of these groups were to begin by exchanging their ideas and experiences so as to work out the core points of their group theme. The second step was conceived as an approach to the school: What lies beyond the horizon? What might be the characteristics of schools within a Europe of regions unified? How might these schools meet the demands of the next millenium? And finally, the third step was concerned with finding strategies for putting the identified goals into practice in educational planning, school operation, and teaching.

Ultimately we wanted to examine our results within the context of the school; therefore the second phase of the conference was devoted to exchange with school administrators, teachers, students, and parent representatives. Two days were set aside for visits to Saarland schools. Our participants then evaluated their observations there and offered their host schools feedback.

Our program was rounded out by brief presentations on educational reform programs in various countries as well as a cultural program that involved local schools and included specialities of the region.

Programme

Sunday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
Afternoon	Welcome Information, Distribution, of program, materials, rooms, ...	Members of the Organization Committee	European Academy
4:00 p.m.	Meeting of the Managemant Group Briefing on how the seminar will proceed, Clarification of open questions	Reinhold Fess	European Academy Room Brussels
About 7:00 p.m.	Reception Informal get-together for making acquaintances	Seminar participants and involved persons from the Saarland	European Academy Forum

Monday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.	Official Openings and Greetings Program content and schedule, Clarification of open questions	Doris Pack, Member of the European Parliament Klaus Domde, Bundnis 90/Die Grunen Peter Lang, EAE Network Members of the Organization Committee	European Academy Forum
10:30 - 11:00 a.m.	Coffee break
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.	1st work session in the groups (Starting session)	Moderation: 1: P. Boullay, K. Winkel 2: U. Basselli, P. Lang 4: R. Fess, P. Michels	European Academy Forum Sokrates Hundertwasser
12:30 - 3:00 p.m.	Midday break
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.	2nd work sessions in groups: (Elaboration of the common, main points of the theme)	Moderation: ditto	European Academy ditto
4:30 - 5:00 p.m.	Coffee break
5:00 - 6:30 p.m.	3rd work session in groups: (Elaboration of the common, main points of the theme continued)	Moderation: ditto	European Academy ditto
Evening	Free/open		Bar

Tuesday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.	4th work session in groups: (Work on intervention strategies and putting them in practice in school)	Moderation: ditto	European Academy ditto
10:30 - 11:00 a.m.	Coffee break
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.	5th work session in groups: (continued)	Moderation: ditto	European Academy ditto
12:30 - 2:00 p.m.	Lunch
2:00 - 3:30 p.m.	Short Presentations: The European Affective Education Network Teacher and Pupil Attitudes to Affective Education in Europe Changes in the Dutch Educational System Australian School Reform Team/Small-Group Model of the Saarland The in-service organisation FELS	Peter Lang Chris Husbands Ad Boes, Peter Boullay Vivienne White Klaus Schwarz Reinhold Fess	European Academy Forum
3:30 - 4:00 p.m.	Coffee break
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.	Discussion of the presentations	Moderation: R. Stock	European Academy Forum
6:00 - 7:00 p.m.	Reception at the Saarland State Chancellery	Burghard Schneider, Head of the Saarland State Chancellery Seminar participants and school representatives	Saarland State Chancellery, Saarbrucken
Evening (till about 10:30 p.m.)	An evening in Saarbrucken	Gerhard Heckmann	Saarbrucken

Wednesday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
9:00 - 10:00 a.m.	6th work session in groups: (Preparation of the presentation)	Moderation: ditto	European Academy ditto
10:30 - 11:00 a.m.	Coffee break
11:00 - 12:00	Presentations of results in a plenary session	Moderation: R. Stock	European Academy Forum
12:00 - 1:30 p.m.	Lunch
1:30 p.m.	Cultural program: Guided tour of the "Hunnenring" (Celtic defense wall)	Seminar Participants	Otzenhausen
4:00 - 6:30 p.m.	Planning of the school visits together with represantatives from the participating schools	Moderation: U. Basselli, K. Winkel	European Academy Forum
Evening from 8:00 p.m. on	Cultural Program: Performances by students	Student groups from Comprehensive Schools Saarbrucken, Orscholz, Bellevue, Riegelsberg	European Acadmey Forum

Thursday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
Morning	Visits to schools in the Saarland, with the main thematic points in mind	organized and hosted by the schools	Comprehensive Schools Bellevue, Losheim, Ludweiler, Orscholz, Sulzbachtal
Afternoon (arrival: about 5:00 p.m.)	Time for individuals or small groups to spend with teachers, parent representatives, ...	organized and hosted by the schools
Evening	Open/free		Bar

Friday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
Morning and early afternoon	2nd school visit	organized and hosted by the schools	Comprehensive Schools Bellevue, Ludweiler, Orscholz, Sulzbachtal
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.	Evaluation of the school visitis	Seminar participants Moderation: U. Basselli, K. Schwarz	European Academy room Brussels
8:30 - ca. 0:00 p.m.	Wine tasting, entertainment and music by "Les Trouveres"	Seminar Participants	Heber Winery, Perl

Saturday:

Time	Contents	Persons	Venue
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.	Feedback to the school represantatives	Seminar participants, school represantatives Moderation: R. Fess	European Academy room Brussels
10:30 - 11:00 a.m.	Coffee break
11:00 - 12:00	Conclusion: Feedback, Look Ahead to the next seminar	Moderation: R. Stock	European Academy room Brussels
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.	Lunch
Afternoon	Guided tour through Germany's oldest town	Seminar participants	Trier
7:00 p.m.	Farewell Dinner

Sunday:

Departure

List of Participants

Addicks, Alison, Croydon Secondary College, Melbourne, Australia

Basselli, Ulrich, Gesamtschule Sulzbachtal, Saarbr?cken, Germany

Becker, Iris, Graf-Ludwig-Gesamtschule, Ludweiler, Germany

Bier, Wolfgang, Gesamtschule Mettlach-Orscholz, Orscholz, Germany

Boes, Ad, W., Hogeschool Drenthe Pabo ,,De Eekhorst, Assen Netherlands

Boullay, Peter, Algemeene Verenigung Schooleiters, ,s-Herzogenbosch, Netherlands

Crucilla, Maria Theresa, III. Universita di Roma, Rome, Italy

Dawes, Jennifer, Lanyon High School, Canberra, Australia

Engel, Gunther, GeS Bellevue, Saarbrucken, Germany

Fess, Reinhold, Gesamtschule Riegelsberg, Riegelsberg, Germany

Gehrmann, Johannes, Fritz-Karsen-Schule, Berlin, Germany

Gressung-Schlobach, Ursula, Gesamtschule Sulzbachtal, Saarbrucken, Germany

Hickey, Cathy, Independent Education Union, Victoria, Australia

Husbands, Chris, University of Warwick, Coventry, England

Kommenta, Bettina, Gesamtschule Mettlach-Orscholz, Orscholz, Germany

Lang, Peter, University ofWarwick, Coventry, England

Lindberg, Brian, State School Teachers' Union of Western Australia, Mosman Park, Western Australia

Matheus, Annette, Trier, Germany

Maynard, Richard, Seaford 6-12 School, Seaford, South Australia

Michels, Peter, Universitat des Saarlandes, Saarbrucken, Germany

Mieth, Gaby, Gesamtschule Losheim, Losheim, Germany

Nordgren, Lynn, American Federation of Teachers, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

O'Keefe, Kevin, Mount Barker Senior High School, Mount Barker, Western Australia

O'Keefe, Rosie, Mount Barker Senior High School, Mount Barker, Western Australia

Owen, Christine, National Schools Network, Canberra, Australia

Renn, Joachim, Gesamtschule Mettlach-Orscholz, Orscholz, Germany

Roberts, Joanne, National Schools Network, Victoria, Australia

Scholer, Wolfgang, Gesamtschule Bellevue, Saarbrucken, Germany

Schwarz, Klaus, Gesamtschule Mettlach-Orscholz, Orscholz, Germany

Stock, Richard, Europaische Akademie Otzenhausen, Nonnweiler, Germany

Urgesi, Emma, ITC Botardi, Rome, Italy

Walka, Gwenola, Saarbrucken, Germany

Weber, Sigrid, FELS, Sulzbachtal, Germany

Wheldon, Laune, National Schools Network, Queensland, Australia

White, Vivienne, National Coordinator of the National Schools Network, Sydney, Australia

Winkel, Klaus, Landesinstitut fur Padagogik und Medien, Saarbrucken, Germany

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