Pabo entrance test disadvantages non-Western students
Programs that select at the gate receive fewer students with a migration background. The entrance exams of the teacher training college are now being held up to the light to prevent 'good white girls' from being preferred.
image: Nanne Meulendijks
A liquid is mixed with an unknown substance and poured through a filter. There is a residue. What kind of mixture was poured through the filter? A solution, alloy or suspension?
What event is considered the starting point of the Eighty Years' War? The capture of Den Briel, the invasion of William of Orange, the destruction of the Catholic churches or the renunciation of King Philip II by the Dutch nobles?
The boundary between temperate regions and tropics is higher in the west of southern Africa than in the east. What causes this difference? A colder sea current, a dry climate or high mountains?
These are just three questions from the entrance tests for the teacher training college. These tests (geography, history and nature & technology) were introduced in 2015 to guarantee that prospective students have sufficient knowledge to start the teacher training program.
A concept like the war has a different meaning for non-western students
Whether those tests are successful depends on the definition of success. Less dropout in the teacher training college? Check, especially with MBO transfer students. Less study delay? Check, at least in the propaedeutic year. A higher quality of the graduates? That could be, but it is not known how this can be measured. A very clear effect of the entrance tests is that they reduce the influx of students with a non-Western background. 'PABOs want their students to be a reflection of the population', the Researchned agency noted in 2019 during the evaluation of the admission tests. 'But that aim is hindered because candidates with a migration background more often fail the admission tests.'
Witter
The influx of students with a non-Western background decreased from one year to the next from 456 to 174 at the same time as the test was introduced. 'The teacher training college is getting whiter', it concluded Education magazine early 2017.
In order to counteract this effect, it is now being investigated whether there may be a 'Western bias' in the admission tests. In other words: are native Dutch people more likely to answer these questions correctly than people with a non-Western background because of the subject or the use of words in the tests?
Do the questions contain formulations that bother some non-Western students?
The test questions are therefore now being examined in two parts, said project leader Arie Vonk earlier this year on the Nu.nl news website. Is there a 'bias' in the subject of the questions, such as 'a certain vision of the past of the Netherlands'? In addition, there could also be a 'linguistic' bias in the questions. "Do the questions contain formulations that bother some non-Western students?"
The project leader does not give interviews during the research, but the approach of the study is public. The researchers will add a number of questions to the history entrance test once in order to reveal any 'Western bias' - or to dismiss it as a fable.
Selection
It is striking that the PABO tests are not the only selection instrument that seems to work to the disadvantage of students with an immigrant background. It's actually quite a common phenomenon. 'In study programs with a limited number of places, fewer students with a non-Western migration background come in,' the Education Inspectorate concludes this year in The state of education. Selection usually also works to the disadvantage of students who have parents with a lower income.
The study programs are often aware of this side effect of their selection, the Researchned office notes in the report. Selection for study programs with a numerus fixus & the accessibility of higher education, from 2018. And that often feels a bit uncomfortable for those programs themselves. 'People feel that the heterogeneity of the student population is under pressure.' And: 'The feeling is mostly gone white good girls to select. '
Mainly indigenous women from the middle class work on the pabos
Could the latter also be the case with teacher training colleges? Yes, thinks Gerda Geerdink, associate lecturer Qualities of teacher educators at the University of Applied Sciences of Arnhem and Nijmegen, who previously obtained his doctorate on the position of boys in the teacher training college.
According to Geerdink there is a 'homogenizing cycle'. “The teacher training colleges mainly employ indigenous women from the middle class, who are more focused on gamma than on science subjects. As a result, there is an unconscious image among the teacher training colleges that the ideal professional is a middle-class woman, with all those other qualities. The inflow is then – still unconsciously – adjusted accordingly.” And so the homogenizing circle is complete.
Open day
That circle is reinforced with an admission test that unconsciously selects on origin or gender. But also with something as simple as an open day. “On open days of teacher training colleges, the programs take into account the characteristics of the prospective students,” says Geerdink. “It's always great fun, because female prospective students like that. For example, a choir sings in the auditorium. ”
Not all potential students, including boys, are enthusiastic about this. Geerdink: “They are often a bit more practical. They want to know, for example, how many hours a week they have to study and what they will earn later. ”
If there is less attention for these aspects on an open day, a boy will feel less at home. In crude terms, says Geerdink, it comes down to: "Do you attract other groups of prospective students on such a day, or do you unconsciously chase them out of the tent?"
Look at what someone's background adds value to the teacher training course
The boys and students of non-Western descent who manage to get through the admission procedure are often quite alone at the teacher training college. Only one or two boys or students of immigrant descent per class is certainly no exception. Perhaps that is why students from these groups drop out relatively more often.
Many teacher training colleges try to solve this problem by putting the boys - and sometimes also the students with a non-Western background - together in one group. It works, sometimes. But the real solution, according to the inspectorate in the State of Education, is to set up an 'inclusive didactic and educational approach for all students'. This makes everyone feel welcome and at home at the PABO.
Gender neutral
And something like that starts with tackling the admission procedure, says Geerdink. In the first place, as is happening now, by re-examining the questions for the admission test. “Because a term such as 'the war' naturally has a different meaning for native Dutch students than for non-Western students.”
Suppose that the questions from those admission tests become completely neutral and gender neutral. So that the tests are just as easy or difficult for Femke, Fatima, Peter and Racheed in terms of subject and language use. Even then those tests remain a selection instrument. An instrument with which you, as a teacher training college, test whether potential students have been able to memorize sufficient knowledge.
Boarding interview
And if you want to make the teacher training college more diverse, says Geerdink, you may have to select entirely different things. “Look at the qualities that every aspiring student brings. This can be factual knowledge, but also knowledge about a particular culture or population group. And you don't test that with multiple choice questions, but in an introductory interview, for example. ”
In other words, don't focus on what an aspiring student is missing. Geerdink: “Look at what someone adds valuable to the PABO training because of their descent or background. That would make a big difference in the influx of non-Western students. And also the influx of MBO students and boys, by the way. ”
This article appeared in the December issue of the Onderwijsblad. AObmembers read this story at the beginning of this month, they automatically receive the magazine eleven times a year in the mail.
