New study: teacher training course without digital skills? no problem

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Not a matter of course: Teacher with digital skills (archive image)

Photo: Friso Gentsch / dpa

If you want to become a teacher in Germany, you can still complete your studies without digital skills before starting your legal clerkship.

A new study by the Center for University Development (CHE) in Gütersloh shows: Only 20 percent of universities have mandatory offers for all student teachers, regardless of the type of teaching profession.

The CHE announced on Wednesday.

For the study, data from the "Teacher Education Monitor" were evaluated.

Accordingly, there was little progress between 2017 and 2020 in anchoring the topic in the curricula of universities.

According to the CHE, digital media competence includes the areas of media criticism, media studies, media use, media design and media didactics.

The coronavirus crisis also did not accelerate the changes to more media literacy in studies, according to the analysis: »At the current pace, for example, it would take until 2040 for teaching at grammar schools before digitization-related skills are established across the board in teacher training. «

The study

Expand areaWho carried out the examination?

The study is based on the “Monitor Lehrerbildung”, a nationwide database for teacher training.

It is a joint project by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Center for University Development (CHE), the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Stifterverband.

Expand the area Which data has been used?

61 universities with teacher training courses and the 16 federal states have participated in the "Teacher Education Monitor 2020".

The results show significant trends for teacher training courses in Germany.

In view of the disastrous results, there must now be a rapid reform of the teacher training courses in the direction of digitization, says Volker Meyer-Guckel, Deputy Secretary General of the Stifterverband: "Good technical equipment and younger teachers alone do not guarantee a good digital education." The federal and state governments must now finance the corresponding reforms and permanent technical support: "Schools and universities cannot cope with this enormous permanent task on their own."

him / dpa