Partners in Austria

University College of Teacher Education in Lower Austria

Coordinating Institution

The University College of Teacher Education in Lower Austria trains primary, secondary and special needs teachers. Currently, about 1,200 initial teacher trainees and about 7,000 in-service teachers are enrolled at the college. Thus, the University College of Teacher Education in Lower Austria (PH NOE) also offers a wide variety of study programmes in the field of continuing education and further education for all types of schools.

It has eight departments, two inclusive teaching practice schools and maintains excellent partnerships with regional partner schools, vocational colleges and adult education groups.

The University College of Teacher Education in Lower has some involvement in the implementation of European and Fulbright grants as well as nationally funded research and material production projects.
Its Open-Online-Journal R&E-SOURCE publishes articles on practitioner research, focussing on teaching methodology, subject matter research, innovation and good practice in teaching and education, and teaching practice research in German and English.
The college has a thorough quality assurance system and holds the ISO 29990 certificate by Austria Quality.

www.ph-noe.ac.at

ph-burgenland_logo

University College of Teacher Education Burgenland

The University College of Teacher Education Burgenland (Pädagogische Hochschule Burgenland – PHB) is a young and dynamic university situated in Eisenstadt, the capital of Austria’s easternmost province Burgenland.

PHB provides professional teacher education and training (for primary and secondary level) in an 8-semester Bachelor of Education degree programme and several educational master programmes. It also offers in-service teacher training and various courses for further teacher education for teachers of all general, vocational and high schools. About 350 initial teacher trainees and more than 5,000 in-service teachers are currently enrolled at PHB.

There are three focal points in study and research: New Culture of Learning and Teaching, E-Learning and Media Education as well as Multilingualism and Intercultural Education. Accordingly, PHB has developed and is now constantly maintaining Austria’s biggest Online Teacher Training Platform (Virtuelle PH). PHB also engages in many international language projects both on school and university level. Furthermore, PHB provides study programmes for teachers of religious education. As regards music teacher education, PHB is in cooperation with the Eisenstadt Haydn Conservatory.

PHB has five departments, a centre for language learning and teaching and around eighty regional teaching practice partner schools (primary and secondary level) many of which are bilingual schools (German-
Hungarian and German-Croatian).

Twice a year, PHB publishes its own educational journal “PH publico” (print and online) including scientific articles on educational research, innovative developmental projects as well as good practice in teaching and education.

Situated in the east of Austria, close to Hungary and Slovakia, PHB sees itself as a strong partner in a multi-
lingual cross-border education network in Central Europe. PHB also maintains many national and interna-
tional partnerships with universities, vocational colleges and adult education units. PHB engages in many international projects and holds an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education ECHE.

In the current Erasmus+ project PALM, PHB is represented by Prof. Dr. Barbara Buchholz MA as researcher and her English primary teacher trainees as well as Mag. Susanne Keglovits as administrator.

www.ph-burgenland.at

BG/BRG Stainach

The BG/BRG Stainach is an eight-year academic secondary school in north-west Styria. The school was originally founded as a private school by a parent’s initiative in the 1960s, but was soon integrated into the federal school system and has been a publicly funded school since.

The school is attended by around 700 students who are taught by a teaching staff of about 70. As the only school of its kind in this rural area, it attracts students from a large radius including parts of the neighbouring provinces.
At the lower secondary level, the students can choose between the more scientific curriculum of the Realgymnasium and the more language-oriented Gymnasium, which offers a six-year course in Russian or Latin. In upper secondary, they can choose from a range of specialisations such as science, business and law, art or additional languages. English is always a compulsory subject for eight years, but students can choose from two- and four-year courses in Italian, French, Spanish or Latin. After their eight years at the school, all students take the federally standardised Matura exam, which allows them to attend university.

www.gymnasium-stainach.at

Vienna International School

The Vienna International School (VIS) is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art school which provides children aged 3 to 19 with an inspiring, high-quality education in a caring, multicultural community.

The VIS is located in the north east of Vienna, one of Europe’s most beautiful and historical cities, very close to the headquarters of the United Nations.
Vienna International School has a tradition of curriculum development and innovation offering all three programmes of the International Baccalaureate. The final two years of these programmes, taught in grades 11 and 12, lead to the award of the IB Diploma, a qualification recognized and sought after by universities around the world. The students acquire 21st century skills to enable them to thrive in an increasingly mobile and interdependent world.
VIS students represent more than 100 nationalities, and speak over seventy mother tongue languages. While we are a secular school, we host believers of every world religion and respect their beliefs. In a multicultural and multilingual environment, with English as the language of instruction, no culture dominates and we are greatly enriched by this diversity. Our approach to education highlights a commitment to activities both during and outside the school day that connect students to our local community as well as with schools throughout Europe and the world.
VIS provides a caring and supportive home to 1400 students. We enjoy a low student-teacher ratio with a dedicated staff trained and experienced in teaching the IB curricula and able to help each student reach his or her individual potential.

www.vis.ac.at

Bilingual Junior High School

The Bilingual Junior High School is a four-year middle school, teaching pupils between the ages of ten and fourteen years. It is situated in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna. All subjects, with the obvious exception of German, are taught in part or completely in English.

Originally started as a pilot project with just one class twenty years ago, the Bilingual Junior High School has constantly grown and now consists of twelve classes, with a current total of 386 pupils. In 2011 the school moved into one of the most modern school buildings in Austria. As well as teaching the standard New Middle School subjects the BJHS offers a large number of optional afternoon classes, such as Choir and Band, Drama and Dance, Orienteering, French, Spanish, Fit for Action, Table Tennis and Football, to name but a few. Pupils come from Wiener Neustadt and its surrounding area, with the number of applicants usually double the number of places available. After their four years with us, pupils are qualified to continue their education at any kind of higher secondary school.

www.bilingualeschule.at

Claudia Mewald
University College of Teacher Education Lower Austria

Claudia Mewald

Research

Teaching Styles and Learning Styles
Primary Foreign Language Teacher Education
Foreign Language Testing and Assessment; Portfolio Assessment; Formative Assessment
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Leaning) Focus: language development and metacognition in plurilingual settings
Lesson Study
ResearchGate

Teaching

Claudia Mewald has been teaching English Methodology, Young Adult Literature and Applied Linguistics at the University College of Teacher Education in Baden since 1995. From 1981-1997 she taught English, History and Art at primary, special needs and secondary schools.

In 1999 she was awarded an MA degree at the University of East Anglia (UK), where she also carried out her doctoral research with a focus on CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning).

Sabine Wallner
University College of Teacher Education Burgenland

Sabine Wallner

Teaching

worked as an English and CLIL teacher for learners from the age of three to seventy for 25 years before she started to teach at the University Colleges of Teacher Education in Lower Austria, Baden and Burgenland, Eisenstadt. The courses she teaches at the University College of Teacher Education in Burgenland are literature, applied linguistics, methodology and media didactics.

Research

Teaching Speaking in EFL
Using Lexical Notebooks and Gamification EFL Vocabulary Teaching,
Assessment in Primary EFL

Barbara Buchholz
University College of Teacher Education Burgenland

Barbara Buchholz

Barbara Buchholz is professor of pedagogy and educational sciences and professor of English methodology and didactics of multilingualism for future primary school teachers at the University College of Teacher Education in Burgenland (PHB), Austria. Furthermore, she has worked as lecturer of Eng-lish didactics at the Department of English at Vienna University and as lecturer of intercultural com-munication at the Austrian Vocational College of Military Leadership. Her research focus is on edu-cational development and quality insurance as well as on foreign language education and systemic multilingualism in primary education. She is member of the curriculum commission for foreign lan-guages at the Educational Ministry of Austria (BMB) and she is member of the board of the Austrian Society of Language Didactics (OEGSD). She is PHB-representative at the national institution for mi-gration, cultural and multilingual integration (BIMM). She has contributed to various language pro-jects at Austrian (OSZ) and European institutions (ECML) and published various monographies and articles.

Susanne Keglovits
University College of Teacher Education Burgenland

Susanne Keglovits

Administrative assistant at PHB
Teacher of Economics at secondary academic school.

Hubert Gruber
University College of Teacher Education of Lower Austria

Hubert Gruber

Hubert GRUBER, Mag.art., Ph.D., music teacher, educationalist and author; teaching and researching at the University College of Teacher Education of Lower Austria in Baden/Vienna. The focus of his work is teaching and learning with music in the context of dialogic processes, theory and practice of interdisciplinary and integrated learning with music and the developing of learning materials for music education, especially for collaboration with other subjects and disciplines. From 1985 to 2011 he was teacher in music education at different Austrian schools; since 1992 lecturer for music education at several Universities at different times, the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, the Kunstuniversität Graz and the Mozarteum Salzburg and lecturer for Continuous Education Courses for Teachers. Together with Markus Cslovjecsek, editor and publisher of the dialog platform www.musikundmensch.ch /www.musicandlife.eu with the focus on developing practice and research in integrated music education. Cooperation with the Haus der Musik Vienna and the Lang Lang International Music Foundation to develop the music education project “Stairplay – music step by step” (www.hausdermusik.com). Course management of “specialization music education” in collaboration with the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. From 2002 to 2012 member of different ministerial working groups. Since 2014 Chairman of the ministerial Textbook Commission for music. Member of the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

Martina Neumüller-Reuscher
University College of Teacher Education of Lower Austria

Martina Neumüller-Reuscher

Lecturer at the University College of Teacher Education of Lower Austria in Baden/Vienna. The focus of her work is physical education.

Christine Brandmüller
BR/BRG Stainach

Christine Brandmüller

A former student of the school, I returned to Stainach as a teacher for Mathematics and Biology in 2014. My motivation for PALM is making a European exchange of student work possible.

Thomas Jeide
BR/BRG Stainach

Thomas Jeide

Raised in the Styrian Salzkammergut, I went to Munich to study there. Since 2012 I have been teaching German, History, Drama and Rhetoric at the Gymnasium Stainach. What I like most about PALM is, that it gives pupils the opportunity to improve their language abilities on the basis of authentic works from other European pupils.

Andreas Kaplan
BR/BRG Stainach

Andreas Kaplan

Born and raised in Graz, I moved to Stainach when I got the chance to work here. I now live close to the school with my wife and two kids to teach English and Chemistry. What I like most about PALM is that it gives students a big audience for their texts.

Anja Royer
BR/BRG Stainach

Anja Royer

After finishing my studies in Graz I ached to return to the Enns Valley. Since the autumn of 2016 I’ve been teaching German in Stainach. My motivation for PALM is the special appreciation students can get for their work and making it possible for them to earn from other students.

Elisabeth Punz
University College of Teacher Education Lower Austria

Elisabeth Punz

Lecturer at the University College of Teacher Education Lower Austria

Maria Vlasitz
University College of Teacher EducationLower Austria

Maria Vlasitz

Lecturer at the University College of Teacher Education Lower Austria