Dinsmore heads to Denmark on sabbatical

Sunday, October 9, 2005 1:35 AM PDT

tami hart | argus observer Jan Dinsmore left for her sabbatical Sept. 28. She will be studying the Danish education system and how it trains its teachers to work with different cultures.

Tami Hart

Argus Observer

ONTARIO

For Eastern Oregon University's Dr. Jan Dinsmore, her year- long sabbatical with six months in Denmark will be a little bit like going home.

A full-blooded Dane, Dinsmore, whose maiden name is Hansen, said she has distant relatives that still live in Denmark and there is an old ancestral home she plans to visit while in country.

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This is not Dinsmore's first trip to the country.

”The first time I went to Copenhagen I looked around and thought ‘these are my people,'“ she said.

Although one purpose of sabbaticals is to rejuvenate and refresh the mind and spirit, it's not going to be a vacation for the Associate Professor of Education with eight years with Eastern Oregon University.

Her days will be full with looking at the Danish education system and how teachers prepare to fill the needs of their culturally diverse classrooms, as well as looking at alternative means of assessment for culturally diverse and cognitively diverse students.

In Denmark, teachers remain with the same group of roughly 25 students from kindergarten to ninth grade. Once ninth grade ends, students have the option of continuing their education in a specialized school, attending high school, which is the university track, or moving on into the workforce.

”They really develop the individual, rather than just looking at the masses,“ Dinsmore said.

In addition to teachers, there are ”social educators“ who fill a role very similar to that of a social worker.

”It's a combination between a social worker and a special education teacher,“ Dinsmore said. ”They go to college, just like regular teachers go to college, but social educators work with case loads and focus on the special needs of people from abusive situations or domestic violence - anything a social worker would be involved with.“

Dinsmore said she would be looking at the training these social educators receive in college. Forty percent of their curriculum in college is in the arts, which trains them in methods of alternative assessment of students' skills.

”With the spectrum of students you get in the classroom today, you need to have a variety of means of assessment other than just a paper and pencil test. You can still have those paper tests, but you also need to have other methods of measurement to see what these students know and for them to be able to express what they know.“

Teachers in Ontario face similar challenges with classrooms and Dinsmore said her research in that area will help to enhance the programs in Ontario schools.

She will also spend time in the schools and doing a lot of observation, talking to teachers and students and documenting the lives of the Danish people through photographs. Dinsmore will also be doing some lecturing while in Denmark, although she said the Danish approach to lecturing is more of a hands-on approach of doing activities with the students as opposed to just standing in front of the classroom.

To prepare for her total immersion into the Danish culture, Dinsmore said she has been studying Danish through the use of a computer software program. Already versed in the French language, she said the structure of the Danish language is almost easier than a Latin language, like French, Italian or Spanish.

”I might be speaking a lot of ”Danglish“ at first," she laughed. ”I feel to really know a culture, you have to know the language.“

Dinsmore will be staying with a Danish family of educators that she met when her own family hosted a Danish exchange student two years ago. She also visited their home when she took her children on a trip to Europe.

”I can picture where I'm going to be,“ she said.

Dinsmore left for Denmark Sept. 28, leaving behind her husband and 17-year-old son to fend for themselves. Her daughter recently left for college.

”They're both very capable,“ she said of her husband and son. ”Since it's going to be hunting season, they're going to be gone every weekend hunting so I doubt they'll even realize I'm gone,“ Dinsmore joked.

She'll return at Christmas time for about a month and then return to Denmark to stay for another two months.

Once she returns to Oregon permanently, then comes the task of writing up her findings, submitting articles for publication and then making presentations.

Dinsmore said that if she weren't an educator, she'd probably be an artist, although education is her first love. ”It's all about learning. It's what I do. I feel like I make a difference,“ she said. ”I really want good teachers in our schools. I feel like I'm trying to help do that. That's why informing my practice of what another country is doing will add to that.“