Teacher education overhauled
Anyone who wants to become a teacher will soon be offered a personalized educational path. Customization is becoming 'much more than now' the norm in teacher training, writes Minister of Education Ingrid van Engelshoven.
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Van Engelshoven sent the appointments which she made with the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH) and the umbrella organization of universities VSNU to the Lower House last Monday. The changes in teacher training are drastic and will take place in the short term.
This has everything to do with the teacher shortage. Interest in teacher training is growing, but especially in part-time variants. Lateral entrants are also increasingly interested. This ranges from people with an academic background who practiced another profession, to former MBO students who have already worked with children.
Source of incomprehension
This new growth matches often not with the courses as they are now organized. And that leads to incorrect expectations for both parties, takes a lot of time and energy and is sometimes also a source of misunderstanding. the administrative agreement between the minister and the employers. 'This group must be challenged and guided', according to OCW press release.
According to the parties involved, this can be achieved through far-reaching flexibility, a good assessment of the competencies that are already present among the students and better supervision of starters and side entrants.
What stands out in the appointments:
- Higher vocational education teacher training programs will soon no longer have a fixed curriculum. Entrants from secondary education can still receive 'more well-defined education'.
- The HBO student, together with the school, determines how he works on so-called 'learning outcomes' and how he demonstrates those outcomes. This can be done by a test, but also by an assessment.
- Students don't always have to be in school. Working on a learning outcome can also be done online or at the school where he already works.
- An intake assessment will be available for prospective HBO students on teacher training courses from the 2021-2022 academic year. On the basis of that assessment, they receive a tailor-made training offer in teacher training.
- For lateral entry students with an academic background, an academic lateral entry route will start next academic year in the regions of Leiden/Amsterdam and Utrecht.
- The first regional teacher alliances will start in Utrecht and Groningen this year. These partnerships between teacher training courses and school boards should lead to a 'more attractive and higher-quality offer' of the courses.
- Staff at teacher training courses are trained in working with learning outcomes, with previously acquired competencies (EVCs) and with intake and development assessments.
Minister Van Engelshoven will allocate 22 million euros for these interventions over the next three years. 70 percent of this goes to HBO and 30 percent to WO.
In the Spring Memorandum of 2020, 11 million euros has been structurally allocated to teacher training courses.
In the agreements on teacher training, reference is often made to the research of Merel van Vroonhoven, former AFM chair and now lateral entrant into education. Read part of the interview that the Education magazine had with her: 'We will not solve the teacher shortage with the current approach'
You can read more about the shortages in: 'Teacher shortage continues'
