High dropout rate among starters: 'it made me grim'
Three brand-new teachers from Maaike Lange's seven-person study group quit within two and a half years of obtaining their qualifications. How did that happen? And why did the rest succeed?
Picture: Type tank
Two and a half years ago I completed the Interfaculty Teacher Training (Ilo), the training to become a first-degree teacher, at the University of Amsterdam. In the meantime I have already left education. There is plenty of work, as a first-degree Dutch teacher in Amsterdam you are a nice prize animal, but unfortunately I did not find my niche in education. Is this just me?
Maybe. But national research also shows that many new teachers quickly drop out. 63 percent of all new teachers in secondary education are considering quitting within five years, according to a 2015 report by the Education Cooperative. And a more recent survey by the Education Executive Agency (Duo) shows that 32 percent of all (qualified) teachers at under thirty in secondary education stop teaching within five years. The main reasons are high workload and an insecure appointment.
Persuasion
What about my Ilo study group of the Dutch department? Who stayed and who didn't, and why? In 2014, we started with ten students, both part-time and full-time, in different age categories, all with the same ambition, namely to become a teacher of Dutch at a secondary school. We were all convinced that we would succeed in this, so we invested time and money. During the first and second semester, the first students dropped out. The training was not easy, it was not so much because of the content, but mainly because of the enormous amount of work. For some, it turned out that training and internship were difficult to combine with home or other work: three out of ten dropped out.
During the first and second semester, the first students dropped out
The remaining seven fought on and passed their grade one qualification. Now, after two and a half years, four teachers are teaching at a high school - one in Shanghai - and three of the seven-year-old club have stopped teaching.
Part-time students
Interestingly enough, all part-time students from my study group stopped teaching, including myself. The part-time students were the 'older' students; we started training after the age of XNUMX and had already had a different career.
Wilma Groeneweg, subject didactician and supervisor of our study group, thinks that part-time students drop out because they are less convinced of their chances of success than younger students. “The first years for the classroom are not easy for young teachers, but they devote themselves more to it. Young teachers have often chosen more consciously, because many young people do not want to teach because their own secondary school is still too close, so those who do have often wanted to become a teacher for a long time. ” Such as Yves Otten. His friends in high school already saw in him a teacher.
Teaching methodist Groeneweg has now retired, she has guided many students to become a lecturer, and has also seen enough part-time students succeed. Fortunately, because then the complete dropout rate of the part-timers in my study group is not exemplary. The reason why the slightly older teacher does succeed is because, according to Groeneweg, he is often more confident because of extra life experience. "And that enables you, for example, to choose a school that suits you more quickly."
Finding a suitable school increases your chances of succeeding as a teacher. Janneke van de Griendt, Dutch teacher in Shanghai, says: "Teachers who do not enjoy their work may be in the wrong school."
Law enforcement
I chose a small Montessori school in Amsterdam with a lot of attention for art and culture and I was sure that this school would suit me well. I had fun in the students and the teaching kept getting better. Yet my annual contract was not renewed. I was unlucky with the difficult collaboration with a colleague. Both new and jointly responsible for the substructure, with completely different characters. Besides, no one at school guided us.
Coaching and guidance of starting teachers contributes to the success of a teacher at school. So at my school that guidance was insufficient, but on my part it was stupid that I didn't ask for more, I would find out for myself. So: do it, new teachers, ask for coaching and keep in touch with team leaders.
Teacher Hanneke Hengst indicates that the short line with the team leader contributed to her passing in class. There is an exchange almost daily. “When the work peak became too high, I was allowed to stay at home for a day to catch up. Another time I went to the report meeting on a day off. ” That mutual give and take is important according to Hengst, it shows that the school has confidence in her.
According to the aforementioned Duo report, teachers cite high work pressure, stress and insecure contracts as the reason for leaving education. Teacher Sophie te Nuijl: “As a teacher you immediately have a lot of responsibility. Students, colleagues, managers and parents, everyone expects something from you. ”
As a teacher you immediately have a lot of responsibility. Everyone expects something from you
Checkout
A lecturer's field of activity is therefore broad. It was only during the final meeting with my principal that I realized that we had not agreed at the beginning of the school year what my goals were for that first year. What could I say, be judged on? I estimated that the preparation of the lessons and building a bond with the classes were paramount. But a school can also have completely different wishes. Perhaps improvement is possible here: as a teacher you should know better which tasks you have to master in the first year and up to what level, which in the second and which in the third year.
Of course, the home or private situation also plays a role in whether or not you succeed as a teacher. Anne Schram noticed how difficult it is to combine education with children. "If my child was sick, I couldn't show up for school ten minutes later." Hanneke Hengst witnessed how the school contributed to her move.
And otherwise it is just hard work. As Te Nuijl says: "Run fifty hours a week."
Finally, I asked our former supervisor Wilma Groeneweg whether she could have already estimated at the start of our study which of our study group would or would not make it as a teacher. She expected that from everyone who is still a teacher. And the dropouts? She had indeed doubted with me. “People who already have work experience really enjoy the creative aspect of teaching, such as making good lessons. They usually find the 'politician' at work very annoying. ”
