Disagreement about PABO intake tests
Nonsense tests for geography, history and nature & technology cost the teacher training colleges a lot of intake, especially for full-time students. That's what the opponents think. Proponents are happy with the higher quality of incoming students and a lower dropout rate in the first year of study. How should we proceed with the intake tests?
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"The intake tests for the teacher training college are really tough." In fact, Erik Tillema, former teacher and former deputy director of a primary school, would fail himself. He is so sure of this because he and his daughter, who wanted to go to teacher training college, took many practice tests for geography and nature & technology before the summer holidays. And that turned out to be tough.
Learning objective geography: describe and explain the landscape-forming effect of exogenous and endogenous forces
For example, a learning objective for geography is that the aspiring student must be able to 'describe and explain the landscape-forming effect of exogenous and endogenous forces'. For nature and technology, the aspiring student must 'be able to name the parts of cells and explain some of their functions', and for history 'explain the emergence of states within Europe on the basis of the Burgundian Empire'. And that for prospective students who have not taken a final exam in these subjects.
Molluscs
Madness, says Tillema, who wrote a letter sent in about it in the Volkskrant and now talk to it about it Education magazine. As a student, you can acquire that knowledge about geography, history or nature and technology during the teacher training program itself? And otherwise there is still the teaching method later. "If I have to teach a lesson about molluscs in group 7 tomorrow, I will sit down for it tonight and then I will remember."
By the way: why do we actually test needless ready knowledge in advance and not look at motivation? “From primary school on, my daughter says she wants to be a teacher at a primary school. Do we want someone very motivated to teach, or someone who knows a lot about geography? ”
We should actually be handing out flyers: come to this wonderful course
No, those admission tests are superfluous, says Tillema. In fact, they cost the teacher training colleges a lot of students. And that while with the current teacher shortages we need everyone. “We should be handing out flyers on the street: Come to this beautiful profession. Instead of throwing up nonsensical obstacles before the start of the teacher training program. ”
There is no question that we desperately need teachers. Just like the fact that the tests take a lot of intake. When they were introduced in 2014, the intake of full-time teacher training colleges plummeted from 5200 to 3400 first-year students. Since then, the intake has been slowly picking up (we are now at 4000 entrants nationwide for full-time study programs), but it is still about a thousand new students per year. That hurts in these times of shortages.
PABOs no longer need to update basic knowledge and can immediately go into depth
But the tests also have advantages, at least in theory. In this way they increase the quality of the intake. Havists who have not taken a final exam in history, geography or nature and technology, show with the entrance tests that their basic knowledge is at a good level. And MBO graduates take all three tests anyway.
As a result, teacher training colleges no longer need to update basic knowledge with the first-years and can immediately go into depth with education. That is good for the quality of the graduates. Also very important: it reduces the dropout rate in the first teacher training year. At least in theory.
The big question is, of course, whether this also works in practice. According to professor Frank Cörvers, the entrance tests have not led to students with higher final exam grades entering the teacher training colleges. "The selection is a flop, you could say," Cörvers stated last year Trouw.
Wasting
On the other hand, the dropout rate in the first year of the teacher training college due to exams has decreased considerably: from more than 18 percent in 2014 to 11 to 12 percent in the following years. That is good news, also for students themselves, who are now less likely to waste an academic year.
But to make it complicated, especially MBO students were put off by the tests, as a result of which teacher training courses lost a large part of their immigrant influx in one fell swoop. 'The teacher training college is getting whiter', it headlined Education magazine already in 2017. And that is bad news for primary schools in the big cities, which are sometimes eager for diversity in their team. Or teachers anyway.
In short: the tests have advantages and disadvantages. And opinions are therefore divided. This is how Titia Bredée, then president of the University College iPabo in Amsterdam, stated in the Education magazine that she stood squarely behind the intake tests. 'Although we do have to make sure that talents from secondary vocational education, who lack the baggage for PABO, can catch up.' The latter is now also happening: there are practice websites, support days, bridging programs and preparatory lessons that students can take in the final year of MBO or HAVO. Although those students also have something else to do in that last year, such as preparing for their final exams.
Education is as divided over the admission tests as the British are on Brexit
On the other side of the spectrum of supporters and opponents, we find, in addition to former teacher and father Tillema, training coordinator Frank Bordui of the Hogeschool Zeeland. He stated last summer vacation in the Provincial Zeeland newspaper find the keys 'ridiculous'. 'A weird, bad measure. In this way, the government is depriving young people of the opportunity to become a teacher, while they want to do so with heart and soul. '
In short, education is as divided over the admission tests as the British are about Brexit. Fortunately, there will be a policy evaluation this year, says Barbara de Kort, chair of the National Consultation Teacher Training for Primary Education (Lobo). This will show what effects the tests have had and whether anything needs to change.
There is no doubt that it saves intake in the full-time course
In any case, she believes it is clear that the tests turned out differently than intended. "The purpose of the tests was originally to guarantee the level of knowledge of the incoming first-years." After all, the prospective students were able to prepare for the test and thus bring their knowledge up to a sufficient level. “But the tests appear to have a deterrent effect that we had already warned about in advance. And that that saves inflow is clear. On the other hand, you shouldn't just look at full-time courses: part-time courses and the courses of side entrants are increasing enormously. ”
So what does she think? Do the advantages of the intake tests outweigh the disadvantages? “I am very curious about the policy evaluation,” says De Kort. "Then we can draw conclusions."
