Teacher Training in the Netherlands By Manuela du Bois-Reymond

Initial teacher training courses in the Netherlands are part of higher professional education or university. Higher professional education caters for full-time, part-time and dual (i.e. work-study) teacher training courses which lead to qualifications as primary school teacher, secondary school teacher grade two (for lower secondary education and first three years of senior secondary and pre-university education), teacher for vocational education, and as a special education teacher (postgraduate course). Universities provide full-time, part-time and dual training courses leading to qualifications as a secondary school teacher grade one (upper secondary education). University students can also follow special courses in pedagogy to qualify for teaching in lower educational levels. Another way of entering the teaching profession is through lateral entry. This allows people with higher education qualifications to enter the teaching profession through an alternative admission procedure. They then receive training and supervision aimed at equipping them with the necessary skills within two years.

Teacher Training Reform By Colin Cramer and Marcelo Parreira do Amaral

Teacher education traditionally falls under the responsibility of national or regional educational governance and legislation. There are no centralized political requirements, guidelines, or competences on a law giving sense at the European or global level. Nonetheless, currently one may observe international trends in reforming teacher education globally and within Europe across the different national teacher education systems. A starting point to understanding this may be seen in the fact that all European countries have provisions of compulsory schooling. It implies the necessity of educational policy and research to be engaged in reflecting, evaluating and reforming teacher education, thus providing the basis for a successful education system. The increasing competition among nations in providing their labour markets with highly educated and qualified professionals leads to an increased political attention to reforming teacher education. In general, a close link between school quality and teacher training is assumed. However, there are many controversies over whether and if then how teacher training has a direct impact on the quality of instruction and on student outcomes.

The GOETE project has completed its first year. In this first year much effort has been put in the preparation of the comparative research. In this preparatory phase, eight country reports on institutional, socio-economic and cultural contexts of educational trajectories were produced. These reports are based on statistical data and extant educational research from the different national contexts. The findings served to prepare the empirical field work inasmuch as national specific differences came to the fore and could be accounted for in the design and instrument construction phase of the various work packages. The results of this research phase – a State of the Art Report on structures and problems of educational trajectories in Europe – will be made available soon via the GOETE website.

Organisation of Schooling in Germany: one-sided view of a complex discussion by Thorsten Bohl, Tuebingen, Germany