“We actually have to be careful not to burn the students too early. Otherwise we will prolong the problem,” warns the chairman of the Conference of Austrian PH Rectors (RÖPH), Walter Vogel.
If students don’t graduate because they burn out, this staff will be missing again – and that for decades, according to the rector of the PH Upper Austria. Due to staff shortages, students are now getting into class earlier and earlier. In Upper Austria there are already students who teach unaccompanied in the second semester in schools. “We think that’s a huge problem.”
worry about quality
The principals also care about the quality. Students have to get away from how they experienced school as pupils, learn theory and receive good practical support. If there is a lot of unaccompanied teaching parallel to the training, there is a great danger that the students will not take much with them from their studies.
Once a large part of the bachelor’s degree has been completed, Vogel emphasizes that the rest can also be studied part-time – whereby the students here ideally – like in the past with the teaching internship – have about half a teaching obligation and are not working in several subjects, perhaps even at different schools should.
From Vogel’s point of view, the currently hotly discussed shortage of teachers is a bigger problem in certain types of school or districts and Corona has intensified that. “Nationwide, the numbers are not encouraging, but the entire system is far from collapsing.” You can still get by with overtime or the use of retired teachers or teachers who are not yet fully trained (teaching students, career changers).
Red lines in training
Vogel also refers to the demographics: In Upper Austria, for example, there are currently around a fifth fewer young people and therefore fewer potential teaching students than ten years ago, while many older people are retiring at the same time – as in many other areas. “You have to dive through it.” In any case, it is important that there are enough people in training and “systems are set up so that normality can be restored in a few years”.
In the current discussion about possible changes in teacher training, there are a few red lines for the RÖPH: The internationally customary Bachelor-Master structure has brought an appreciation that should not be given up again. In addition, the total duration of the course should not be less than the ten semesters that are customary internationally (300 ECTS). There are currently eight semesters of a Bachelor’s degree and two semesters (for the primary level) or four semesters (for the secondary level) of a Master’s degree.
Bypasses in the case of a great shortage of teachers
The PH rectors also want to retain the study structure with training for the primary level (six to ten year olds) and the secondary level (eleven to 19 year olds), regardless of the type of school in which the teachers later work. However, they can imagine laying “bypasses” in areas with a particularly large shortage of teachers and offering special studies for a few years until the shortage there is remedied. As an example, Vogel cites the training for religious education teachers in compulsory schools or for middle school.
Vogel does not want to accept that the study, which was changed in 2015 or 2016, is impractical compared to the previous system, as the teachers’ union often criticizes – even if there is a need for improvement here and there. “If you add up the internships in the bachelor’s and master’s degrees and the induction phase (one-year practical introduction by an experienced mentor, note), you don’t have less practice. It’s just stretched out over a longer period of time.” If students are already standing alone in the class during their studies, they actually sometimes have too little teaching experience beforehand.
Distance learning as a lure
From Vogel’s point of view, a lever to attract more people to study to become a teacher could be additional offers, for example in the form of distance learning. “The question is whether you don’t gain more than by changing the studies.” The idea is to offer a form of study that better suits the life of prospective students (keyword: care obligations, etc.). At the PH Upper Austria, this offer for the bachelor’s degree, which is currently unique in Austria, has been available since autumn 2020, the proportion of distance learning is up to 75 percent. The practical phases take place in blocks, e.g. during a presence week at the beginning of the course or on a few weekends and in the practical schools near the place of residence.
According to Vogel, the rush for the new offer is “huge”, the students come from all over Austria. Since then, the number of students at the PH Upper Austria has increased significantly – despite fewer potential beginners. In the future, distance learning will also be offered in cooperation with the PH Vorarlberg. In the master’s program, Vogel also sees a trend towards extra-occupational offers at the other PHs, especially in the elementary school sector, sometimes with a high proportion of distance learning.
Source: Nachrichten
