VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark

The role of social pedagogue in todays word is to be harts, heads and hands
for education and he should provide care, social-emotional skills development,
framework for inclusion and sustaining the learning process.
From all of these, social pedagogue focus on developing social-emotional
abilities because as Aristotle said Educating the mind without educating the
heart is no education at all.

Alexandru Mirela Elena

Social Education VIA University College, Holstebro

Practice Coordinator - Jega Karu

Practice Institution - Birkelundskolen

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark

Introduction
In this presentation portfolio, I will focus on my objective, firstly, adjacent disciplines
and framework for the interdisciplinary that can be transferred in skills as: being part of an
interdisciplinary team for the solution of concrete problems and/or issues, secondly, how to use
various social and special pedagogical approaches and methods, changes processes and
innovation, didactic and pedagogical methodologies for developing pedagogical practice,
including documentation and evaluation, that will be concretized in skills as: making a
professional assessment of the methods used where the practical application takes place,
participating in the development of the pedagogical practical application using innovative and
experimental measures and setting objectives, using documentation and evaluation methods and
developing knowledge via participation, systematic accumulation of experience and reflection
on pedagogical practice.
These objectives will help me during the presentation portfolio to present my work as
an in training social pedagogue and also to explain the role of social pedagogue as I seen as I
worked in these two situation schools classes and leisure time (SHF).
I chose this theme because these are the areas that I want to develop in my country and
It was useful for me to work with them.
During presentation I will sustain my affirmations with personal experiences and
reflection and also with theories that sustain my perspectives.

Theoretical Context
The role of a social pedagogue in school is to be a multitasker, but essentially he is
responsible for developing childs intellectual, social, emotional, neuromuscular, ethical, moral
and aesthetic.
All of these can be narrower to care, and social pedagogues responsibilities regarding
care have mare aspects according to BUPL Denmark:
The emotional contact and social interaction, that the child takes part in. For example,
you show interest in the children and relate to them in a way that expresses that you

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
like them, and that you relate actively to their needs, signals and development
(psychologically);
Childrens physical well-being (care and handling childrens physical needs) in relation
to the childs need, signals and development (physically). For example, you ensure the
child gets the needed rest or ensure that, the child exercise and use their body.
To show interest and commitment in what interests the child. For example, you listen,
understand and enter the thoughts, questions and activities that are occupying the
childrens minds. This also implies for example knowledge about and interest in the
current children cultures and modes of expression, their problems and fields of interests.
(BUPL, 2006)
To provide care constitutes a large and important part of the time pedagogues spend
with children, and to receive care is important to all children regardless of their age. Care
and looking after relates to those social conditions, that determine children need to be taken
care of in institutions, so they will have a safe place to be and not come to harm. Care is
furthermore the basis for children and young peoples psychological and physical wellbeing and is important for their further journey into life. Societys responsibility for its
children is among other things realised through care. To provide care for children, can as a
whole be described as taking care of and attending to childrens emotional, physical and
cognitive development. (BUPL, 2006)
As we seen care is very important to be the base of social pedagogues work but he
should provide learning as well.
Learning that aim to take place in personal and social development for all kids also for
those with special needs. Social pedagogue should handle to combine care and providing
learning experience for developing a wide range of abilities all this made with kindness and
caring for inclusion of special needs children and not least by appreciating the children as
human being not as human becoming. This perspective is sustained by Erik Hygum childcentred approach that where the child is understood in its own right and he is seen a human
being. (Erik Hygum, 2014). And also I think that his perspective is in accord with Berit Baes
approach about spacious patter, how see the child subject in his own right, the principal actor
in his own learning.

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
For all of this to be achieved social pedagogue need a favourable environment and
during the practice placement I discovered that outdoor is an excellent framework for
experiential learning that culminates with authentic learning.
When we speak about outdoor and authentic learning we speak about experience,
discovering by doing, the meaningful of the learning that you achieved by doing it with all your
body, mind and soul.
Experiential learning (learning by doing) is based on assumptions that people learn best
when they are personally involved in the learning experience, knowledge has to be discovered
by the individual and a persons commitment to learning is highest when they are free to set
their own learning objectives and are able to actively pursue them within a given framework
(John Dewey 1910 in Smith, 1980, page 16)
If we analyse Berit Bae perspective about children participation and relationships we
can situate experiential learning in a spacious patter that can be described as seeing the child
as being aware of his own chose, and his own learning, offering him the right of learning by
tying. Also, Bae sustain that this patter mediates mutual recognition between children and
adults, and they support children in efforts to express their own views. (Bae, 2012)
Outdoor education embraced experiential learning as a way of learning in the outdoors
using real-world experiences to achieve learning goals. In outdoor education the emphasis for
the subject of learning is placed on relationships, relationships concerning people and natural
resources. The process of that learning is experiential. Early educators such as Comenius,
Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Dewey advocated the importance of meaningful experiences in the
educational process.
Focusing on community relations and socialisation frame that outdoor provide,
according to Wegner, learning is highly influenced by socialisation and imitation which
culminates with shared learning. (Wenger, 1998)
As Foran sustain, outdoor is a good place for developing comunication and colaboration
skills, that are very important for a more complex skill, team work. Also outdoor activities can
develop: self-estime, confidence, independence, and these abilities that people develop
working in the outdoor environment can be easily transferred in other fields of life.
It seems that pedagogues understood the values of outdoor activities and they use them as
frequently as they can but they understand also the values of indoor activities and they design

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
a large range of activities to develop childs intellectual, social, emotional, neuromuscular,
ethical, moral and aesthetic.
A common practice in indoor are workshops that are a great way to combine the booth
social-emotional development and learning.
The workshop method is driven by Learning Pyramid, it achieved the practicing level
and sometimes when children help each other the teaching level. (Inmark, 2010)

Figure 1. The learning Pyramid. Source: https://synap.ac/blog/educational-apps/

The workshop activities should be designed with a propose that involve objective well
established and involve approximate 5-10 children.
In booth indoor and outdoor activities, social pedagogue is a great teammate for teacher
during schools classes, it is also a social pedagogue skill to work in a interprofessional context
with many professions.
As State level interprofessional working between social pedagogue and teacher is
reinforced by the study of Nielsen and Hamming in 2008 which reveals that Denmark has a
tradition of interprofessional collaboration between the health, social work, social pedagogy
and teaching professions in many settings, dating back to the early 1960s. Collaboration has

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
been enshrined in law, mostly in order to prevent the exclusion of people with social, physical
or other disabilities and to improve the efficiency of service delivery. Interprofessional
education (IPE) has been required by law since 2001 for entrants to the health professions
(including nurses, midwifes, physiotherapists and occupational therapists), since 2002 to social
work and since 2007 for school teaching and social education. (Nielsen, Hamming 2008).
Literature says that official documents in Denmark (Health Act in 1006 and Higher
Education Act in 2001) are bringing in collaboration and interprofessional groups, professions
like: teachers, social pedagogues, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists and other similar
professions. It is already a tradition in the educational field to attend interprofessional working
groups. IPE (Inter Professional Education) has topics in next fields:
1. Pain, involving nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and social workers
2. Rehabilitation, involving nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists
3. Child care, involving social workers and social educators
4. Primary education, involving teachers and social educators. (Ministry of Danish
Education)
Social pedagogues help and promote personal and social development of all kind of
social groups and according to Davies Jones social pedagogy as being concerned with the
formation of the personality, the acquisition of social competences, moral guidance, the
securing of independence and a capacity for self-regulation and the ability to join in the social,
political and cultural life
Pedagogues often refer to themselves as working with heart, head and hands (Cameron
2005) - concepts which can be traced back to the work of the Swiss pedagogic philosopher
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827).
Pedagogy is centred on personal and social development of individuals, but for a full
and healthy development request a big team of professionals, to attack on all fronts because
today according to Salm (2010) well-being a primary concern for educational system to
improve academic outcomes and have consequently partnered with communities and other
sectors to mobilize human and material resources to improve learning.
As we seen educational system need a big team of professions to meet the needs of
children. But focusing of interprofessional collaboration between pedagogue and teacher we
seen that their goals is divided as follows: the pedagogue is taking care to bringing the part

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
form an activity that is valuable for social and emotional context and the teacher is bringing
the part that is important for learning process, for cognitive part.
In developing activities involving booth social-affective and cognitive it takes part
innovation. (Salm, 2010)
After we present the working methods in different environment and context we need to
specify that this involve al children and a very important responsibility of a social pedagogue
is inclusion, helping sustaining and bringing with all the children with special needs and the
last but not the least to help the collective to understand and support their colleagues.
The role of social pedagogue working with special needs is to work in a way that
addresses their individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually
planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment
and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help learners with
special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and their
community, than may be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom
education. (Wilmshurst, 2010)
Speaking about inclusion, as a reality in a social pedagogues very day work he need to
sustain this by offering equitable frameworks for special needs children according their need,
it can mean special time just for them, supporting during activities or offering special materials.
(Inclusion of Students with Special and Educational Needs, 2007)
Summarizing the literature, we understand that the role of a social pedagogue is a
several and complex one with a lot of responsibilities for providing a good frame for developing
a large area of abilities and good learning process, he being placed every day in situation to be
spontaneous, innovative also he should provide an inclusive environment for special needs
children.

Methods
I chose for collecting the empirical data, experiment and observation.
Observation it is a research method used to record facts, situations, which occur during a
pedagogical activity.

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
Experiment it is a research method that verifies a presumed relationship, it is an active state
of the subject, involves an orderly geared with the specific purpose of verifying a hypothesis
The strengths of this methods are the fact that are qualitative methods and using them I
can access deep meanings of research them. The limits are that they present the risk of
involving subjectivity and also the fact that Im not an experimented researcher. I collected
empirical data during my practice placement.
I used also inevitably in my documentation the research method analyses of materials.

Main Section
Working in practice placement institution Ive achieved many skills that prepared me
for real job work. Next I will present the contexts that helped me to achieved the skills that I
presented in the beginning of this portfolio presentation.
Firstly, as in training social pedagogue in schools classes Id achieved
interprofessional collaboration skills during activities that Id made with my coordinator and
teacher, later on Id proposed activities for de classes that involved cross-professional working.
One of these that had a pig popularity it was Shopping Hour. Next I will present a short
SMTTE model of this activities, that will sustain that I achieved also didactic and pedagogical
methods management skills.
Interprofessional Math Activity
Context
Interprofessional work is today a most do in educational system, and fortunately it is
a reality in Denmark. Social pedagogues help and promote personal and social development of
all kind of social groups and according to Davies Jones social pedagogy as being concerned
with the formation of the personality, the acquisition of social competences, moral guidance,
the securing of independence and a capacity for self-regulation and the ability to join in the
social, political and cultural life.
In interprofessional work social pedagogue and teacher, they working together can work
in the same activity with social skills and also with accumulation of knowledge. In the activity
that I propose we will be in classroom a teacher and a pedagogue.

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
We need magazine, scissors, paper, pencils and cardboard shopping baskets.
Objectives
Social pedagogues should develop social skills as communication collaboration for a common
goal, preparing kids for real life, this activity do this also by simulating a real life session of
shopping, it is valuable because in this simulation they are the ones that managed the money.
Also we have as goal accumulation of math knowledge.
Sign
The sign that we are looking for during the process of activity will be: collaboration between
children in shopping process, devising task, making the calculation, choosing orientation (by
what criteria they chosen the products), manage the amount of money.
Actions
We will have pairs of kids that will get shopping magazines, a shopping basket, a shopping list
and a free buy (chosen by them), they should cut the product from magazine and put in the
basket, write the price on a paper and make the math of all shoppings.
From both point of view, it is a win win experience, the kids learn to additions and
multiplications and from social pedagogy perspective, this activity put the kids I a simulated
real life situation, to managed money also to collaborate with his partner about how to choose,
what to choose. The free chose has as objective to see how kids reach a common goal.
In the end will be interesting to see by which signs they chosen the products.
Evaluation
In the end we will visit each pair to see what they get and if the math is good.
After I found out that interprofessional collaboration is very important in school context,
Id understood that dealing with children with special needs is it also an issue that depends on
a good collaboration between professions, especial between the ones, social pedagogues and
teacher that interact with the children every day.
For getting skills in this direction I was part of teaching hour in classes that have children
with learning difficulties, where Id observed how social pedagogue deals with them and how
he works with the teacher. The main focus form the booth profession is involving children but

VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark
form different perspective, teachers involve children in learning process facilitating it for their
needs and pedagogue help children to solve social and affective problems.
I had the chance to be part of a special programe designed for a child that had learning
difficulties. It was a one to one (and me) working time constructed to reach booth dimensions
learning and social-affective, helping kid to rise attention level, self-esteem, knowledge level,
problem solving skills and developing creativity and motoric skills.
For bringing new strategies to work with special needs children I make a portfolio with
strategies form American and European strategies from literature that occur dealing with
children special needs.
Another important skill that I achieved during school classes and also during leisure
time it was manage the children in outdoor activities. During the practice we had a lot of
outdoor activities, some of them were proposed by me and some of the take place in a
interprofessional context. One of my favourites was a behaviourist approached activity,
Treasure Hunt where we used a puzzle that was hidden in playground and the child should find
and solve it and after that they will unlock the treasure. It was fun, following collaboration
between children for a common propos, children space orientation and problem solving
abilities.
In leisure time (SHF) perspective Id seen the benefits of free play and free chose.
During SHFs I had weekly workshops with handy craft activities that followed to develop fine
motor skills and childrens creativity. Id made workshops with themes as: glasses, superheros
masks, crowns, bracelets, flowers, animal farm and others. Form these activities Id achieved
skills as documentation about pedagogical methods and working with them and after that I was
able to evaluate if I achieved my objective and how can I improve my methods.
In the end let something behind, beside the workshops products Id made in a team with
five seven children a hopscotch in 0A grade decorated with English and Danish numbers for
the little children to learn English numbers. It was a fun activity that beside learning numbers
the children achieved team work abilities. With this activity Id achieved my objective
regarding innovative product.

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VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark

Conclusions and personal reflections

In conclusion the role of a social pedagogue in practice is working with all children and
promoting inclusion by adaptive, spontaneous and innovative methods in a favourable
environment.
Reflecting on this 4-month period of practice I can say it was a wonderful experience
at profesional level and also at personal level. I had fun, Id learned a lot, Id formed myself as
a professional, as a social pedagogue and now when my Erasmus placement is almost finish I
can say that was a useful and on time in life experience of which I have so many things to bring
home.

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VIA University College

Holstebro, Denmark

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5. Wilmshurst, L., & Brue, A. W. (2010). The complete guide to special education (2nd ed.). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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Experiential Education, 147-163.
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11. Nielsen, A. Hamming, A. (2008) Interprofessional Education in Denmark. Esbjerg, Denmark:
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12. Salm, T. (2010) Measuring Outcomes: A review of Interprofessional Collaboration on Schools.
Physical & Health Education Journal

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