Learning Environment

Learning in an International Environment

IB students at Hasseris Gymnasium and IB School represent a unique diversity of nationalities, cultures and different traditions for learning and teaching. Some students have attended American or English schools abroad, following their parents to for instance Asia or the Middle East. Others come from schools in Africa or the Middle East where the teaching language may have been English. Some have come to Denmark because their parents have found employment here, others have come as refugees, and others again have lived in Denmark their entire life attending the Danish Folkeskole, perhaps with a year abroad as an exchange student.

This diversity gives an invaluable open-mindedness in our students’ interaction with each other and is clearly one of the strengths of the IB student environment at this school. It is also an aspect which is to be considered carefully in the creation of a solid and constructive learning environment because students come with very different expectations to for instance homework, written assignments, group work and communication with teachers.

Learning as Cooperation

Consequently, at Hasseris Gymnasium and IB School we have initiated various activities focusing on learning environment. We consider learning a constantly developing process of active cooperation between teachers, students and fellow students. In this process we strive to create a meta-awareness in our students of their own study skills and their own learning processes, believing that students who develop this awareness learn better and function better inside and outside the class room than students who just study »blindfoldedly«. For us learning is a process involving everything that goes on within and around the learning environment.

Here are some examples of what we do to secure a constructive learning environment:

  • Compulsory mentor talks in 2.i and 3.i. Each student has a personal mentor teacher who follows the student through the IB system and twice a year meet with their protégée to discuss learning related issues such as exam preparation, the general learning environment in class, homework and the planning of written assignments.
  • Study couselling classes throughout all three years where issues such as time management, group work, exam preparation and class room values are discussed.
  • Extended library introduction, focusing on searching information and on plagiarism.
  • Extracurricular Assignment Workshops, Math Workshops and Open Art Classes each week.
  • Extracurricular talent classes in science and the humanities for the very gifted students.

Class Room Teaching – and all that is Beyond

Since we believe that the creation of a fruitful learning environment takes more than just the daily class room teaching, our ambition is also to secure an active social environment around our students. Each month we have a morning assembly for all IB students and teachers, and 4–5 times a year we arrange assembly lessons where topics not necessarily directly related to subjects taught in class are explored by lecturers from »the real world« outside school.

Likewise, we have various social gatherings strengthening the friendships among our students across year groups. Often these activities are planned by the students themselves as CAS-projects (CAS meaning Creative-Action-Service and refers to the 150 hours of extra-curricular activities an IB student must have besides his general subjects to achieve a diploma). Examples of these events are the annual IB Day, our Christmas Lunch in which also IB alumni participate, and our graduation celebration in May for our graduates and their relatives. On top of this many of our IB students also participate actively in the social life of the Danish upper secondary school here at Hasseris Gymnasium, benefiting from the opportunities offered by both school systems.

Opdateret: 5. februar 2012