De Nieuwe Part-Time Opleiding Tot Leraar Mvt

Abstract

In the Netherlands, one of the ways of getting a teaching qualification is via a variety of evening courses, named LO, MO-A and -B, which were meant originally for career-minded primary-school teachers· This part-time curriculum takes the student at least 3+2+4=9 years, and will bring him a third, second or first degree of qualification. The third degree enables him to teach in the lower secondary schools (LBO, MAVO), the second degree in the lower grades of the higher secondary schools, the first degree, equivalent to the qualification obtainable at universities, in all the forms of secondary schools. The programmes in these courses, some of which are as much as a hundred years old, had a reputation of solid traditionalism. In the early seventies new institutes for teacher training (NLO-institutes) were created, which allow the student in full-time courses to get a second and third degree in two different subjects. These institutes were based on a new educational philosophy and were more oriented towards the teaching profession than the traditional part-time courses. In 1978, the minister of Education allowed the old MO-institutes to renew themselves in order to become up-to-date training institutes. This article describes the operation that this decision implied-The restructuring of the LO-MO-A had to take place according to the so-called Y-model. After a first preparatory year the student passes a preparatory exam which has a diagnostic function, both for him and the Institute. After two years of study the student has to choose between two options: the general education option and the teacher training option. In the modern language field the general option leeds to careers in which a thorough knowledge of a specific foreign language and foreign-language culture is required, such as in journalism or in industry. The article, however, limits itself to the teaching option for modern languages. If one compares the new situation with the old one, one finds the following more or less fundamental differences: - Whereas vast differences could be observed in the nature of the curricula for the respective languages in the old situation, the objectives for the new curricula were defined along the same lines which allows for a maximum of comparability. - In the new situation the student gets a third degree after three years, and a second degree after one more year· - Great importance is attached to oral and written skills, much less to grammar and translation. - Unlike the situation of old, every element in the curriculum should be legitimized to a large extent by its relevance to teaching. - Foreign language culture is taught with an emphasis on today's political, social and cultural manifestations. - The most profound break with the past is that 25 per cent of the curriculum is devoted to general didactics and language pedagogy.