Why put a university-educated teacher in front of the classroom?
This year, the first batch of students graduated who can teach in primary schools with a university master’s degree. What is the advantage of a university-educated teacher? “Very simple: we just need more teachers.”
The teacher shortage is getting worse every year. And so more teachers are needed. Two years ago, the University of Amsterdam launched the Educational Master Primary Education (EMPO). Now the first batch has just graduated. Debora Roorda, associate professor at EMPO, explains the added value of the new programme.
What makes the EMPO so unique? There are now so many pathways through which you can become a teacher or lecturer. I have lost track a bit.
“I understand that, there are indeed quite a few routes these days. The EMPO is the only programme that offers a teaching qualification at master’s level in primary education. There are quite a few master's programmes for secondary education, but not for primary education.”
“Besides the pabo, you also have the university pabo, but it only offers a bachelor’s degree. The EMPO is a two-year master’s programme and gives not only a master’s degree, but also a teaching qualification for primary education. We target people who already have a university bachelor’s and sometimes a master’s degree. The pabo focuses on people coming from havo or vwo, with us they already have an academic education behind them.”
“And that also makes us have a different audience in terms of students. They are a bit older, for example. Moreover, the backgrounds are very different: we have students who have done pedagogy, psychology or educational sciences, but also students from history, chemistry or political science. Anyone with a background in social and behavioural sciences is directly admissible. If you have a different previous education, you can take an online 6 EC course on teaching and learning theories and we will check whether you have sufficient academic skills. Theses also count. If so, you are admissible. That means that actually most people do get admitted.”
Why would you want to put an academic in front of the classroom?
“Very simple: we just need more teachers. Of course, a teacher does not necessarily have to be an academic. But education does face considerable challenges these days, especially in metropolitan areas. Think, for instance, of inequality of opportunity and increased behavioural problems in education. That requires teachers from more diverse backgrounds.”
“Those diverse backgrounds are there at the EMPO. The EMPO also gives people who have done other studies first a chance to go into the classroom. Think of someone who has done linguistics, who can work very well in a school where students don’t speak the Dutch language fully or half. Or think of someone with a maths background, who can advance the maths teams.”
“There are additionally challenges in education that call for research. Sometimes things are introduced without knowing if it works. Think of anti-bullying programmes, of which there are many on the market. But some review studies show that certain programmes do not work or sometimes even have a negative effect. To put it mildly, that is a shame about the money, but much worse are the negative effects on children. In the EMPO, students learn how to conduct their own research in schools and how to look critically at research findings.”
“Moreover, researching something is also complex; reading the literature on it is not always easy. With students coming in from colleges, we notice that they sometimes find this more difficult anyway. That doesn’t mean they can’t do it though, but given the workload it might help to have teachers who already have experience with it.”
Mathematicians in a maths team... Isn’t this also how there is a big gap between university graduates and primary school children?
“Our students do internships for the whole two years: first one day a week and after six months, two days a week. In it, they practice how to interact with children. In most students you see a rapid development, precisely because they are a bit older and have more background knowledge. But it is quite a transition, because we also have students who have never been in front of the classroom before.”
Isn’t it also a lot of wiping buttocks and tying laces in primary school?
“It is a bit underestimated what the world of education is like these days. I mentioned earlier the challenges in metropolitan areas, but also think of the appropriate education that has been introduced, which means more children with behavioural problems are in regular education.”
“It is important that this can be properly addressed. Teachers with other training can of course do that too, but sometimes it can help if you have scientific baggage about behavioural problems, for example. And just teach children at all kinds of levels. It’s so complicated, so challenging. I would say, the more experience and the more knowledge, the better.”
And what does the child gain from a teacher being academically trained?
“The teacher can hopefully be more responsive to the child’s needs. Although that is also dangerous to say, because there are also many teachers without an academic background who can do that very well. We just need a lot of good teachers, regardless of whether you are academically trained or not. Anything that helps solve the teacher shortage is important.”
