Psychology and Education in Slovenia

Today we went to Special School Centre Lavec in the Old Town to begin our service learning activities. Slovenian elementary schools are divided into three sections or age groupings: grades 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9. We broke into five small groups and went to different classrooms around the school at all three levels of the program as well as the special classrooms in arts, music, and physical education. After an initial teaching period, we had a 25 minute break. This is typical for Slovenian schools of all types, not just schools for children with special needs…50 minute teaching blocks followed by 25 minute rest periods.

We noted several other differences between American and Slovenian schools. When we were taking a break in the teacher’s lounge, the classroom teachers joined us. This meant that most of the students were not being directly supervised in their classrooms during the break period. This does not seem odd or dangerous to European educators. Also, students wore slippers, just like at home. European educators try to create a home-like atmosphere in their classrooms, including taking off your shoes and putting on slippers, just like at home.

After lunch, we walked to the Mental Health Center to visit with Dr. Tristan Rigler. He explained many details of the mental health system and the way Slovenians deal with individuals with mental health needs and the broader health care/national health insurance system.

After a brief break, we walked to the United States Embassy where we met with embassy staffers Joshua Harris, Stephanie Newman and Ann E. Gilbertson (Auggie alum, class of ’84). We learned about American policies and relations with Slovenia which can be characterized as positive, and more about Slovenian history and policies, which might be characterized as…complicated.

The sun was out today, and it made a big splash after a couple of cloudy days. Brad joined us last night and made it to the morning session despite having traveled for nearly 18 hours yesterday.

We started today with another lesson from Natasa. We had been given homework to bring back five words with which we needed help. We learned about WCs, ZDA, racun, DDV, and spodnje perilo (helpful if your luggage gets lost and you need to buy underwear).

After lunch, we returned to the computer room at the University administration building to attend a lecture about the structure of Slovenian schools from professor Jana Kalin.

We walked to the Special School Centre to meet Josep Serbetar, the school’s principal who walked with us to the Centre’s administration building to meet the director Matej Rovsek. After a brief orientation session led by Tina Verbic, we said goodbye to the school until we begin our service learning activities tomorrow.

Our last activity of the day was the second part of our Ljubljana city tour with Gregor Pecan. Today we saw a monument in honor of Napoleon (who conquered the previous imperial landlords, the Austrians). It is quite unique to see a monument that celebrates Napoleon outside of France. We also saw the remnants of the Roman city walls which have been incorporated into a performing arts center. The ancient city of Emona was founded by the Romans in the first century and forms the basic structure of what eventually became the city of Ljubljana.

These three days in May are often cool, and have traditionally been named after three saints, the “three cold men”: Saints Servacij, Pankracij, and Bonifacij. These three cold men are followed by a rainy day, the “wet woman,” Saint Zofka. True to tradition, today is indeed cool, and also wet!

In the morning, we met with Natasha Svetina, who led us on a brief tour of the University of Ljubljana main administration building. The former home to the regional parliament, the building is very ornate and formal, not at all like Memorial Hall.

Then we had our first Slovene language class in a computer lab that had formerly been a councilor’s chambers.

In the afternoon, we saw a very different educational experience. First we heard a lecture about the history of Slovene schools at the Slovene School Museum. The second part of the tour was a re-created Slovene classroom from around 1906, complete with small chalk blackboards for each student, severe discipline, and even an instrument of corporal punishment. A box of dried corn kernels was placed in the corner. If students got out of hand, they had to kneel in the box…very painful. Ask Noah.

After around 28 hours of travel (flying, layovers, and other delays), we made it to Ljubljana. One of the delays was the fact that the airline lost some of our luggage.

We were met at the airport by Gregor Pecan, whom we found out is Ines Tours’ travel agent Lili Pecan’s ex-husband. He took us on a brief tour of the countryside and roads surrounding the city, then led a 2 hour tour of the old city. I think we appreciated Gregor’s passion and humor, but were loosing steam and getting very hungry by the second half. Gregor cut the tour short by a bit, but promised to come back later this week to finish the tour.

We had a four hour layover in Paris (Charles DeGaul Airport) which was a little more boring than usual due to the fact we were in an auxiliary terminal for flights to smaller destinations such as Ljubljana. Some tried to catch a nap in some pretty uncomfortable looking positions, and others just sat and chatted or had a snack. The flight to Ljubljana is only a little over an hour, then on to the Hotel Emonec and a city tour.

While in Paris, of course we had to have our picture taken in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Nearly everyone made it to the airport with out incident (we’re talking to you Fatima!) but we’re all safe and waiting to board the plane. We also had a little mini-class in the waiting lounge. The new waiting lounge has restaurant seating and multiple electronic outlets…not necessarily the best arrangement for a class, but it went very well. The rest of the passengers were jealous they couldn’t participate.

The flight is overbooked and they’re asking for volunteers. Hopefully that won’t affect our party.

Here are a couple of pics from the airport.

Today we explored the topic of social perception by watching the film “Friendly Game,” in which two men play a game of chess that turns out to be anything but just a friendly game. Their encounter illustrates the power of expectations and assumptions in how we perceive the world.

We also learned about some of the people and places we’ll be visiting during our trip. Unfortunately, some of our classmates weren’t able to deliver their presentations so they will be preparing to deliver their research at the airport while we wait to board our plane on Sunday. (Talk about using every available minute for learning!)

Finally, we took a group picture (below) that we plan to give to our friends in Slovenia, both old and new, as a memento of our visit.

On Tuesday, May 5th we had out first class meeting. It was petty quiet at first, but slowly folks started to warm up and I think we’re really establishing a nice rapport among the group members. A few of the things we did on Tuesday were to introduce ourselves (we played a progressive “name everyone” game), discussed the specific of the two courses and previewed some of the key elements of preparing ourselves for the trip such as safety and logistics.

We set two small homework assignments for Thursday’s class. Each student will prepare a picturebook that they will use to introduce themselves to people we meet on our trip. The idea behind this is that many of the folks we’ll be meeting won’t speak English, so having pictures of home and family will help break the ice even when a full-blown conversion may not be possible. The other assignment was to do some research on the people and places we’ll be visiting on our trip. By “pre-viewing” the people and places, we hope to establish greater familiarity and raise expectations for the trip.

One idea to which we didn’t get but would like to do on Thursday is to take a group portrait. We then plan to make several copies of this group portrait, sort of like commemorative greeting cards, that we can give to the folks with whom we meet as something of a memento of our visit. This was Stacy’s idea and it is terrific!

Welcome to the Psychology and Education in Slovenia Travel Seminar Blog!

Today Stacy and I met with Andrea Dvorak from the Augsburg Abroad office to preview various travel details. Getting excited (and a bit nervous) as we pull together the remaining details of the trip. As we get down to the last few scheduling details, it becomes increasingly hard to move things around, hence the nervousness, but it is also an excitement to share all of this with our great group of travelers.