Work discussion in large groups: on modifying the teaching and learning method for universities of applied sciences in Austria

ABSTRACT

This paper briefly addresses the situation regarding early years and other teacher-training in Austria in order to clarify what is possible when there are reduced financial resources to offer regular small work discussion groups. The paper goes on to sketch out the author’s attempts to give a group of 40 students the opportunity to learn from the experience of work discussion. The author uses extracts from case studies to show way in which students came to understand that unconscious meaning and connections could be made accessible to their conscious thinking in a complex way.

KEYWORDS:

• Work discussion
• psychoanalytically-informed teacher-training
• applied sciences
• early years teaching
• reflective practice
• applied sciences

Notes on contributor

Barbara Lehner, Mag., MA is a psychoanalytic education consultant, lecturer and researcher at the University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna Research Unit ‘Social Management in Early Education and Care’.