Student teachers are not at all prepared for digitalization in schools

Digital inclusion Digitalization Skills supply Education and training

The government has decided to introduce programming and other digital methods as part of the school curriculum. However, a survey of student teachers shows that teacher training programs do not prepare students at all for teaching with digital tools. Or for teaching at all...

On the morning of March 15, the Ministry of Education and Research, together with Demoskop, presented a survey of 1,400 students at the country's 28 teacher training programs. It had two striking results as shown in the chart below:

  • The use of digital tools is the weakest part of the training.
  • Evaluations of how well students are prepared for the teaching profession in general decrease with the length of the program.

The report presentation was attended by, among others, Olle Burell, Mayor of Stockholm, and Carl Lindén, member of the board of the National Union of Teachers' Student Association. The latter highlighted in particular the frustration of many students that they never actually get any real training in teaching, a frustration that grows the longer the training lasts. During the first years, students are instead referred to VFU, the practical training that all teachers receive at the end of their training, but apart from being insufficient in itself, it is frustrating to have to wait for years.

Anna Ekström, Minister for Upper Secondary Education, highlighted the problem that teacher education, like many other academic programs, has lost touch with the craft of the profession - in the case of student teachers, teaching itself.

When it came to digitization, she wanted to distinguish between two perspectives, both equally important:

  • Schools should prepare pupils for a digitalized society: Of course, no need to discuss.
  • Bringing digitalization into education: Difficult, but it has to happen.