Smoothly from MBO to HBO
In Enschede, a group of MBO students is already following courses at HBO in their final year. They get to know the teachers, the building and more importantly: the way of learning. Once they have moved on, they do better than the havists.
Image: Angeliek de Jonge
The biggest difference between MBO students and HBO students? Anika Embrechts thinks for a moment. She has now been teaching at Saxion University of Applied Sciences for six years, of which the past four years has also included third-year students of the MBO level 4 education assistant. “In the beginning, the MBO students are still very dependent on facts. Stamping concepts, memorizing definitions: they are used to that. After the Christmas holidays you see that most of the penny drops. Like: Oh, but when I understand how something works, it no longer matters what questions are asked. ”
MBO students are still very dependent on facts
Terrible
It is Friday afternoon when about 25 Roc van Twente students enter a technology classroom at the Saxion in Enschede. They went to their internship school that morning and come from all over the region. The materials are already abundantly displayed on the tables: K'nex, Kapla, Lego, clay. “Nice, nice crafts!” one of them shouts. “Yes”, says Embrechts, who has difficulty getting the jolly group to silence: “but there are also a few questions on the board.” The students have to think about which technical concepts they can explain to primary school children with the help of the materials. Marleen ter Hedde (22) sighs. "Technology, I already thought that was terrible at primary school."
Technique lesson from Anika Embrechts (center). (Image: Angeliek de Jonge)
Nevertheless, she goes to work with a pin board on which she guides a chain along radars. Sema Hokkaömeroglu (19), a table away, also frantically tries to erect a bridge construction with simple wooden sticks that - if built properly - can hold itself up. She likes nature & technology. “My weak point is English, but fortunately there is no entrance test for that.” Like many of her classmates, she wants to go to primary school after this. “As a teaching assistant you get a lot of odd jobs. I want to become a teacher and run a class myself.”
Saxion and Roc van Twente kill two birds with one stone with the optional part 'preparation teacher training'. The lessons prepare substantively for the entrance tests for the teacher training college in the subjects history, nature & technology and geography and the MBO students learn how things work in higher professional education.
Propaedeutic year
At Roc van Twente, 40 to 45 percent of teaching assistants after secondary vocational education still opt for PABO. The lion's share passes those admission tests. Once at the teacher training college, they do significantly better than average. In the past four years, between 60 and 80 percent of MBO students obtained their propaedeutic certificate within one year at the Saxion teacher training college.
The dropout rate among the MBO transfer group is remarkably low
In doing so, they far exceed the Havists, says Embrechts. Last year, 30 percent of the Havists won all points in the first year. The dropout rate among the MBO transfer group is also remarkably low, 14 percent dropped out in the first academic year in 2017. While 34 percent of the former Havanese gave it up. But, says Embrecht: “This may also be because HAV students are not yet able to properly assess the HBO level and are not yet familiar with teaching at primary school. MBO students have already completed three years of internships. ”
Saxion and Roc van Twente kill two birds with one stone with the optional part 'preparation teacher training'. The lessons prepare substantively for the entrance tests for the teacher training college in the subjects history, nature & technology and geography. (Image: Angeliek de Jonge)
According to Embrechts, the added value of the optional component lies mainly in the fact that students have been working on their further education for a year. “In that year, MBO students see and explore more possibilities. Some students eventually choose to work first and then do the part-time teacher training program. Or, for example, to follow the training for a second-degree history teacher instead of the teacher training college. "
Decisive in the Twente approach is the teacher loan, thinks Freek Boswinkel of Roc van Twente. Four years ago, Boswinkel and Embrechts expanded the existing collaboration to the current elective part. The difference with other MBO electives that prepare for HBO: students already walk around their potential next school every week - on Friday afternoons - and are taught there by HBO teachers. On Tuesday mornings, the same HBO teachers come to the ROC in Almelo. Boswinkel states: “We MBO teachers cannot teach in an HBO way. It's not in our genes, in our culture. We are more of supporting the students, cutting the material into smaller pieces and always asking: Do you understand? An HBO lecturer just blows through it and says at the end of the story: Next week you will have read this and that.”
MBO teachers cannot teach in an HBO way
The latter is indeed the case during the tough geography lesson at the end of Friday afternoon. Teacher Ursela Linthorst goes through the material at a rapid pace. From atlas skills, to ebb and flow and the related concept of centrifugal force. During her lessons, the desire for clarity of MBO students also becomes apparent. "Madam, can you say one more time: what exactly is the definition?" "Are you going to ask this on the test?" And: "Can I take a picture of the plate?" Linthorst writes concepts and their meaning on the whiteboard while explaining them. She doesn't think taking photos is a good idea. "No, just write along, then you will remember it better."
Two digits
After class, Linthorst explains that it is tough for MBO students. Many of them have not had any geography since the first or second year of VMBO. To get an idea of how they are doing, the students receive two marks for all three subjects they receive from HBO lecturers for tests: one at HBO level and one at MBO level. Linthorst has yet to assemble the first test. “That is quite a job. I think I will do multiple choice for the MBO level and more open questions regarding understanding for the HBO level. ” Boswinkel now knows: “During such a first test, it rains for two, at higher vocational level. Students are shocked by this, but then they have the rest of the year to grow up to the level. ”
At Roc van Twente, 40 to 45 percent of teaching assistants after secondary vocational education still opt for PABO. (Image: Angeliek de Jonge)
Back to Embrechts' class. Because being relatively noncommittal working with Jenga, or stacking sponges in connection does not seem that 'HBO-ig' at all. But Embrechts explains that this is precisely how she works on the understanding of the students. “To understand how something works, you have to practice, try it out for yourself and make connections. It is precisely this way of working that they are not so used to. "
From February 2019, the Roc van Twente education assistant and social care programs will collaborate in the same way with the Saxion study program Social work.
This article also appeared in the Education Magazine of January 2019. Want to receive the Education Magazine every month? Become member of the AOb!
