IHVO Certificate Courses: Levels of Achievement

by Hanna Vock

In order to shed a light on the possible levels of achievement in our Certificate Courses we present the following list of achievement levels to our participants at the beginning of the second seminar. Though drafted especially for our Certificate Courses the items on the list are universal to many learning processes.

Often (in courses, at school or kindergarten) learning does not go beyond the first three levels. In such cases students and teachers likewise tend to believe that successful learning has taken place. We are not satisfied with just that – neither in kindergarten nor in our Certificate Courses.
The participants are to be enabled to assess their learning progress for themselves.

The reason we laid down these levels of achievement in writing was to reassure the more knowledgeable among our students who recognised some of the contents of our course from earlier reading and subsequently deemed these contents redundant. Presenting this list and the subsequent discussion of the text is helpful in clarifying our expectations and the possibilities for in-depth learning.

At the end of our courses it has always been beyond doubt that the close interlinking of theory and practice had rendered thorough and sustainable learning progress.

Those who even tackled the last three levels have unanimously reported that these steps represented an extraordinary challenge.

Level 1:

Acquiring knowledge:
receiving new information, encountering specific questions and recognising already known facts.

Level 2:

Understanding:
understanding theoretical interrelations. Discovering differences to what has been deemed familiar and well understood.

Level 3:

Integrating knowledge:
evaluating newly acquired knowledge and integrating it into one’s own expertise. Confirming or modifying one’s knowledge. Coming up with new concepts.

Level 4:

Practical application:
the newly acquired knowledge and expertise are being employed creatively and with regard to given situations.

Level 5:

An enhanced ability to state one’s own (new and old) ideas in front of others (colleagues, parents, school teachers).
In the course: being able to document the practical assignments in writing in clear and intelligible form.
These levels must be achieved by all participants to receive the IHVO Certificate.

Level 6:

Sustained changes in one’s practical work:
planning and enforcing changes in structures and contents at one’s workplace.

Level 7:

Counselling:
offering parent consultations at the kindergarten and beyond, conducting parent conferences and consultations among colleagues.

Level 8:

Teaching:
restructuring one’s own knowledge in a way that enables the participant to teach the contents himself, offering lectures, workshops and further trainings. Upon request the IHVO offers possibilities to practise this during the course and after, for instance at IHVO-Symposia. Another such activity is offering participants of successive Certificate Courses to sit in at one’s own kindergarten.

Levels 6 through 8 do not have to, but can be achieved if the individual’s situation allows for it.