Syllabus

The course syllabus at the Independent Teachers College is devised in close cooperation between students, teachers and the principal. No external body – including the Ministry of Education – has influence on the content of the courses taught at the school.
Individual courses are designed by teaching staff in collaboration with their students.

The overall curriculum is divided into:

Common subjects
Thematic courses designed to develop students’ professional identity, and courses in collaboration and communication, narrative and pedagogy, psychology and didactics. Common subjects are obligatory for all students.

Specialist subjects
Danish, Maths, History/Sociology, Religion, English, German, Physics/Chemistry, Nature and Science Studies, Outdoor Life, Drama, Media, Music, PE, Art and Craft and Handicraft.
Each student has to take four specialist subjects.

Options
Music across the curriculum, Swimming, Sexual education, Active citizenship, Philosophical method, Basic IT, Aesthetic learning processes, Grammar, Written presentation and Pedagogical method for outdoor instruction. In addition, students are offered four courses in didactics aimed at particular groups: teaching children, teaching young people, teaching adults and teaching students with special needs. Students must choose at least one of these.

Special courses
These consist of: 
A three-week introductory course
Four study weeks
A four-week project period
A group dissertation under supervision
Two week-long assignments
A major assignment in a special subject
All these are obligatory

As has been said, the Academy develops its own subject descriptions for individual subjects and courses.

In addition to such academic instruction, the course at the Academy requires students to take active part in the following:

Active democracy
Through obligatory participation in the schools parliament, year group meetings and committee work students are trained in democratic involvement and decision-making. One day each week is devoted to such activity.

Community activities
The school places considerable emphasis on social cohesion and the celebration of community, and these form an integral part of the school day. In addition, every year group plans, carries out and evaluates one large-scale social event at the school each year.

Teaching practice
Students are on teaching practice for three weeks in their first year, three weeks in their second year and for a whole year in their third year, when they are employed on the same conditions as ordinary teachers

Teaching certificate
In their final teaching certificate all four elements of the course are assessed. In addition, there are specific assessments from the board of studies as a whole, from individual subject teachers as well as an assessment from the school where students have carried out their teaching practice.

Community activities
Being a teacher at a Friskole, Efterskole or Højskole involves much more than simply teaching a subject. It is almost a way of life in which teachers devote themselves entirely to life at the school. They organise meetings and parties and they take part in the cultural and leisure activities of the school. To live up to this form of teaching requires a wide range of talents.

To prepare our students for this area of their work as a teacher, the Academy sees it as being important for all students to take part in a variety of activities outside their teaching. We call these Community activities. These might consist of major events organised by a whole year group, of concerts, of manning and maintaining the school’s full-sized Viking ship, of conducting daily assemblies, of masterminding an international literary festival and much, much more.