International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
Raising children is for parents, as well as teachers, an extremely challenging task. So, what sort of teachers do
we need? It is clear we need teachers who enjoy doing their job, who are pedagogically well trained, who are
engaged and motivated in their job, and who can prepare those children in their care for their future lives in
society. The school has an important role to play, namely the key role of nurturing and encouraging talent. It is
teachers who are often the role models for children who receive little support from their own parents.
So what is the outlook for teacher training in Austria today? In the future everyone applying for teaching
qualification will have to undergo an admissions process. There are 15 institutions currently working on the
development of this admissions process. The aim is to develop a common admissions process which can be
piloted in the autumn of 2016. With this commonly developed testing process those students best suited for the
job of teaching can be filtered out. The main emphasis of this test will be a self-assessment and a foreign
evaluation. First trials at the Styrian Teacher Training College have resulted in positive feedback from both
sides. To avoid a run for places at the universities admittance will be restricted to a certain number of available
places for the courses. This is something that is already practised at the teacher training colleges as well as the
universities of Art in Linz, Graz and Vienna where a course can only be taken after successful completion of an
admissions test. It should be noted that Vienna University has the largest number of students studying to be a
teacher. Further training and education which will continue to play an important role will also take place at the
universities.
At present, if they pass they admissions test the prospective pedagogue will study three years for a Bachelor
degree in Education (a BEd).The plan for the future is that they continue to study either at the PH or university
for a Masters degree this coming into effect in 2019/2020. This means that for teachers in the compulsory school
system (i.e. not the Gymnasiums) study will be lengthened from a three year Bachelors study to a five to five and
a half years for a Bachelors and Masters degree (Bachelor and Masters being the requirement for a fixed post).
Primary school teachers can continue to study and train fully at the teacher training colleges (the PH’s). For
teachers at Gymnasium or middle and higher vocational schools there is hardly any change to the length of their
study, except for the admissions procedure, already established by the teacher training colleges. Their study will
then take place at the normal universities. From the winter semester 2014/2015 the University of Vienna will
offer the new teacher training programme for the secondary level as a Bachelors and Masters study. In July 2013
the University of Vienna Senate passed the necessary guidelines for the lawful implementation of the programme.
Thus all requirements are now in place for the programme to run. The rector of Vienna University
Heinz Engel had this to say.
The development of the education and training of teachers is of the highest priority in the next years for the
University of Vienna. We need good well trained teachers, since they are the guiding forces for the future of
young people and therefore the whole of society.
The pedagogic universities, besides training teachers for compulsory and vocational schools, will also continue
with the further education and training of teachers as well as research in the field of education.
For training in compulsory education there are four choices, primary school, secondary, polytechnic, and
Sonderschule. Sonderschule is a special needs school for those children and youths with certain disabilities, for
example seeing or hearing difficulties, behavioural difficulties, physical disabilities, etc. Since 1993 there is the
possibility for special needs children at primary and secondary level and in the lower Gymnasium to attend a
regular school in integration classes. In an integration class there are two teachers, the regular teacher and the
special needs teacher working in a team. Additionally the teacher training colleges will offer training to become
a vocational teacher in the areas of, nutrition, information and communications, fashion and design and in
specialist technical and commercial branches.
A polytechnic school in Austria is a one year general compulsory education system for the 8 th school year and
serves primarily to prepare those children for the working world.
The curriculum in the teacher training colleges is a classic case of a regimented school plan. The courses contain
only compulsory subjects and offer no possibilities for any optional subjects or a compilation of optional
subjects to be taken. There has been heavy criticism of this system from opposition parties because, with all
these reforms the training and education of the kindergarten teachers has been forgotten! Austria is the only
country in Europe, besides Malta, which does not train its elementary pedagogues to an academic niveau. The
kindergarten pedagogues will, at first, not be part of the general education plan. This has outraged the umbrella
organisation representing this group of workers who speak of a discrimination of this group and say that this
decision has lowered the value of the work they do. The law does provide for a bachelor study for elementary
and/or primary level, however in the absence of teachers for this group at the colleges there will be no suitable
offer of courses. In the future a bachelor study for elementary pedagogues is planned that will take three years
whilst for other pedagogues it will take four years.
The opposition parties have also loudly criticised the bachelor study. The fear is the cheap training of teachers
without a masters degree. At the moment, because of a shortage of teachers, it is possible for students, without
the appropriate accreditation, to teach in schools. Also one knows how difficult it will be for these people to
complete their masters study at the few universities in the provincial cities, and work in the classes parallel to
this.
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