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Teacher after lesson: shaking some foundations
Photo: Matthias Tunger / Digital Vision / Getty Images
For him, the goal is clearly defined: In the end, “more and better people should come out.”
Mark Rackles, strategy consultant and former state secretary in the Berlin Senate Department for Education, explains the circumstances under which he wrote his new expertise on teacher training in Germany;
including ten concrete recommendations for action for politicians.
He already has Thuringia's Education Minister Helmut Holter (Left) on his side: He supports the proposals, said Holter at the presentation of the 64-page paper, which was commissioned by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, on Wednesday in Berlin.
Rackle's proposals would, in part, entail a radical upheaval of previous standards: teacher training would be shorter, more practical, less tied to universities and would shake some of its foundations;
for example, that prospective teachers in the Federal Republic, unlike in many other countries, usually have to study two subjects.
The traineeship following the teacher training course will no longer exist in the usual way.
“I want to trigger a discussion and show the need for political action,” says Rackles.
“The window of opportunity for this is relatively wide open this year.” He sees less resistance to certain reforms from politicians, more from universities.
There has been debate about teacher training in Germany for decades.
The topic has currently become more explosive, among other things, because there is an acute shortage of staff in schools.
In Thuringia, two generations of teachers currently have to be replaced, said Holter.
According to forecasts by the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK), there will be a shortage of almost 70,000 teachers nationwide by 2035.
In addition to bad news about the shortage of teachers, there are also increasing studies showing that student performance is slipping significantly, even in international comparison.
There are also new challenges due to inclusion, digitalization and a very heterogeneous student body.
With the telling title “The Country Needs New Teachers,” Rackles analyzed against this background how the traditional entry into the teaching profession has worked so far, what grievances he sees and what needs to change.
The current state – and the criticism of it
The good news, says Rackles, is that the number of teacher training students in Germany has increased over the years.
Almost 270,000 students are currently studying to become teachers – an increase of almost 14 percent compared to ten years ago.
However, it is unclear how many will actually complete their teaching degree in the end.
According to the analysis, there is no valid, comprehensive data on success rates.
According to data from individual federal states, the “shrinkage” amounts to between 15 or even 50 percent (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania).
One thing is certain: the number of teaching graduates nationwide has recently been significantly below the number of recruitment requirements.
If we take into account the fact that other people drop out during the transition to preparatory service, also known as traineeship, and afterwards, the gap is almost 40 percent according to Rackle's calculations.
You can read how prospective teachers experience their traineeship here.
Rackles concludes that the federal states should aim for 40 percent more teaching graduates and increase their teaching places accordingly.
In fact, according to current state planning, capacities would be expanded by 11.2 percent across all teaching professions by 2035 - nationwide.
Countries with very different strategies
So the bottom line is that there is a small plus.
However, the countries acted very differently, criticizes Rackles.
Four countries, including “heavyweights in teacher training” such as Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, would reduce their number of study places by 2035.
Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) attracted attention last year by wanting to poach teachers who had already been trained from other federal states.
It was said that teachers in Bavaria were sometimes paid significantly better.
In 2009, the federal states in the KMK decided to train at least enough teachers to cover the state's own needs.
According to Rackle's calculations, nine federal states are now expanding their teacher training places by 2035, including North Rhine-Westphalia (plus 25 percent).
Berlin is at the top with a planned expansion of 110 percent.
Anyone who wants to become a teacher via the traditional route usually has to study for five years first, usually at a university.
This is the “first phase” of teacher training.
This is intended to ensure the “scientific qualification for teaching”.
Rackles criticizes here that “there can be no question of uniform teacher training in Germany.”
In the "first phase", all federal states offer graduated teacher training with a bachelor's and master's degree, but in seven federal states, including Bavaria, Hesse and Saarland, training through the state examination predominates.
In this area in particular, according to Rackles, what is required of prospective teachers depends heavily on the federal state.
Hesse, for example, has seven semesters in which students have to complete 180 credit points.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania there are ten semesters and 300 credit points.
The difference in the “workload”: around 2700 hours.
Nationwide, the course generally includes at least two equivalent subjects, and students also learn about didactic, educational science and practical school content.
In most federal states, the study programs differ depending on the type of school, such as elementary school or high school.
Most students enroll in their subjects but are not enrolled in a teaching-related faculty at the university.
After studying, there is a preparatory service that lasts between 12 and 24 months, depending on the federal state.
In this “second phase,” the prospective teachers are trained at a school and, at the same time, are supported and trained in subject-specific didactics.
Rackles cites a report from the Science Council, which identifies a “break” in the training of prospective teachers.
The desired state – and the pitfalls
more on the subject
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Most recently, the Standing Scientific Commission (SWK), which works on behalf of the KMK, presented several reports on teacher training reforms, some of which Rackles strongly criticized in his paper.
The analysis leads to a “relatively uncompromising defense of the university status quo,” he writes.
It is precisely this “university training privilege” in teacher training that the educational consultant wants to abolish; it must be ended in favor of the universities of applied sciences (HAW).
Additional capacity for teacher training that is currently lacking at the universities can therefore be created at the HAWs.
According to Rackle's analysis, both the universities of education in Baden-Württemberg and the technical colleges in Switzerland, for example, have proven their effectiveness.
The debate in Germany appears “anachronistic” on this point.
In total, the expert presents ten recommendations for action in order to thoroughly transform teacher training in Germany.
A selection:
The dual system with state examinations and the Bachelor-Master model should be dissolved in favor of a uniform Bachelor-Master degree program.
Teacher training courses should no longer be based on school types, but rather school levels (e.g. grades 1 to 6 and 5 to 13).
This means that teaching graduates could later be deployed more flexibly at different types of schools.
Germany should say goodbye to the “two-subject dogma”.
Single-subject teachers could be trained to teach a second subject while working.
In this way, career changers could also be qualified.
In the future, teacher training should take place in one phase, so the preparatory service should be integrated into the course of study.
The Science Council also recommends this and it has proven successful internationally, says Rackles.
In addition, given the shortage of teachers, 30 to 40 percent of teacher training students are already working as substitute teachers.
This means that they are already working practically during their studies - but usually without guidance or reflection on their work.
Thuringia's Education Minister Holter wants to implement the first reform ideas in his own federal state from the 2024/25 winter semester.
50 students will then start a dual course of study for teaching at the University of Erfurt.
From the third semester onwards, they would receive practical training two days a week at a regular school and would also be paid for it.
On the remaining three days they should attend scientific seminars at the university.