Teacher training on the right track
Things are getting better with higher professional education courses for second-grade teacher, writes education inspector NVAO in a new report. It's just a pity that so few students graduate.
All teacher training courses at universities of applied sciences get a pass in the six-year educational accreditation. One in five is even downright good. They have set in motion everything to increase the knowledge of brand-new teachers and to better prepare them for their profession.
With a diploma of a second-degree teacher training, teachers can teach in VMBO and the lower years of HAVO and VWO. But many students do not end up in front of the class. They change programs or stop studying, NVAO notes. Perhaps the study programs can exchange good ideas to change this.
Half
Five years after the start of the program, only one in three students has obtained a diploma, according to figures from the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. After eight years, more than half have succeeded. And the diplomas of students who transfer to other study programs also count: not all of them become teachers.
“In recent years, the study programs have all taken measures to improve this,” says a spokesperson for the NVAO. “But we can't see the effect of that yet. For example, the study choice checks for students have only just been introduced. "
In these study choice checks, young people should find out whether the further education of their choice is indeed something for them. The idea is that students then know better what they are getting into and are less likely to drop out.
Attention
'Study success' requires attention throughout higher professional education, NVAO emphasizes. Not only teacher training programs have a hard time with it. The dropout rate and the number of graduates also do not say everything about the quality of programs: in principle you can have a good education where hardly anyone obtains a diploma.
The low study success is also said to be due to secondary education, which does not prepare students well for higher education.
The courses must pay even more attention to the language level of the future teachers.
Due to the imminent teacher shortage, politicians are looking at teacher training courses with suspicion: are they good enough, are they attracting enough students? The NVAO report is intended, among other things, to provide insight into this.
