Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics - IEA

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TEACHER PAY AND STUDENT MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
Germany
Education system
The German education system today is a combination of the West German (Federal
Republic of Germany) and the East German (German Democratic Republic) systems.
Teachers in both the FRG and the GDR were trained in a dual system 40 years ago.
Gymnasium teachers trained in universities, and their focus was subject matter. Other
teachers trained in teacher education colleges, which had lower entry requirements
than the universities and a heavier emphasis on pedagogy. In the late 1960s, the teacher
education colleges were absorbed into existing universities or formed nuclei of new
universities in the FRG, but the traditional system continued in the GDR until the early
1990s, when the GDR joined with the FRG.
Composition of the teacher labor force
Across the education system, just over 80% of primary teachers are females, but this
figure declines to 60% in the lower-secondary schools and 43% in the upper-secondary
schools. The teacher labor force in Germany is, on average, much older than in any
other country in our sample, except Italy at the secondary level. In 2003, almost 50% of
German teachers in primary schools and about 56% of teachers in secondary schools
were over 50 years of age. Because the number of primary school students is gradually
declining, teacher age distribution presents less of a problem at that level. However,
secondary enrollment is still increasing, so replacement and growth of the teacher labor
force may be an issue in coming years, especially since, as we shall show, teachers’ relative
salaries appear to be declining.
Teacher education
Generally, teachers have to have a solid foundation in subject-matter studies, which
they study in the university departments specializing in the respective subjects. General
educational studies are often supplemented by specializations, such as teaching reading,
studied by prospective reading specialists at the primary school level.
The states, or lander, are responsible for teacher certification, as well as for curricula
and choice of textbooks. According to the International Encyclopedia of Education
(Husén & Postlethwaite, 1995, p. 2477), “University (or teacher training college) studies
are concluded by a state-supervised examination with university staff functioning as
examiners. This is followed by an internship (referendariat), which includes supervised
teaching practice and additional coursework. This referendariat lasts two years, at the
end of which there is a second examination run solely by the state.”
West German teachers often did not begin teaching until they were almost 30 years old.
In the former GDR, the requirements were much less demanding, which meant that
a typical primary teacher began teaching in his or her early 20s. With reunification,
many GDR teacher trainers, researchers, curriculum specialists, and school principals
lost their positions because of their cooperation with the Ministry of State Security.
Reunification also led to all five East German states adopting the education systems
of the West, including teacher education (Halasz, Santiago, Ekholm, Matthews, &
McKenzie, 2004).