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2 TRAINING FOR ELEMENTARY
TEACHERS IN AUSTRIA
In an international comparison, Austria is one of the
top performers in the field of vocational education.
Nearly 76% of graduates from an upper secondary
school earn a vocational degree (Federal Ministry of
Education, Science and Research, 2021). The OECD
average is 38.4%.
One such school with a vocational degree is
the “Educational Institute for Elementary Pedagogy”,
which aims to train elementary teachers. This school
can be completed in 2 different ways: in the form
of a 2-year technical school with diploma, but with
the prerequisite of a maturity examination, univer-
sity entrance qualification, or vocational maturity ex-
amination or a 5-year vocational secondary school
with diploma and Matura. In Austria, the Matura
is equivalent to a school-leaving qualification from
a secondary school with an associated higher educa-
tion entrance qualification and entitlement to attend a
college or university. There are some providers who
offer bachelor studies in the field of elementary edu-
cation. However, compared to other countries, Aus-
tria is one of the few countries where the necessary
training for staff in elementary education is below the
bachelor’s level (European Education and Culture Ex-
ecutive Agency and Eurydice, 2019).
2.1 Secondary School Education
The curriculum of the 5-year vocational secondary
school with Matura and diploma is divided into 10
semester with a total of of at least 168 teaching hours
per week. In addition to general education, these also
include the subjects for vocational training for the
profession of kindergarten teacher in elementary ed-
ucational institutions. STEM subjects account for 28
hours per week (16.6% of the total number of hours
per week) and are divided as follows: Applied Mathe-
matics, Applied Natural Sciences, Biology and Ecol-
ogy, Chemistry, Fundamentals of Computer Science
and Media, and Physics (Federal Ministry of Educa-
tion, Science and Research, 2016). The subject Ap-
plied Natural Sciences was added to the curriculum
in 2016. Before this change in the curriculum, there
was no comparable school subject.
As can be seen in Table 1, with the exception of
Fundamentals of Computer Science and Media, di-
dactic content is anchored in the curriculum of all
subjects. Applied Mathematics accounts for the most
teaching hours (10 out of 28 hours per week).
The learning fields of number, space and form,
patterns and sequences, sorting and classifying, time
and frequency and coincidence are developed in the
school subject of Applied Mathematics, divided over
five years, with a view to transfer to the pedagogi-
cal occupational field. In the school subject Physics
in 2 years on the one hand the naming of physical
phenomena and on the other hand accident preven-
tion, electric circuit, magnetism. In Chemistry, the
curriculum in the second and third year includes ex-
periments and related safety aspects as well as food
labeling, food ingredients. In the subject of Biol-
ogy and Ecology, nature observations, hygiene mea-
sures and dealing with children with special needs are
part of the curriculum in apprenticeship years one to
three. In terms of content, the subject of Applied Nat-
ural Sciences in the fourth year of teaching, in that
Biology, Chemistry and Physics have already been
completed in terms of content, takes up the follow-
ing natural science topics in the curriculum: Sustain-
ability, ecological footprint, energy, electric current,
forces, animate and inanimate nature, technology and
inventors, water, elements, soil, forest, time, measure-
ment, weather, sounds and noises, light, sky, bionics,
swimming-sinking, floating-flying. The focus is on
using technical language appropriate to the age group,
formulating research questions, planning and imple-
menting experiments and series of experiments, and
explaining scientific relationships in a way that is ap-
propriate to the target group. As a further point, the
importance of scientific education for the child is re-
flected (Federal Ministry of Education, Science and
Research, 2016).
It must be mentioned in this context that the teach-
ers employed in “Educational Institute for Elemen-
tary Pedagogy” are trained in teacher education in the
field of secondary education as well as school subject-
specific content, but there is no requirement for expe-
rience or studies in elementary education.
2.2 Technical School Education
In the 2-year training in the form of the college
prospective elementary teachers are taught 143 hours
per week, divided into 4 semesters. The subjects
are related to pedagogical practice and the associ-
ated subject areas. Looking at the STEM content,
there are no specifications in the curriculum. Only
the topic of media education is addressed. In a school
autonomous extension area - nature and technology,
which can be freely selected by the training institu-
tion, the following contents are anchored in the cur-
riculum: scientific topics and information, scientific
methods, dealing with children’s questions, experi-
ments, job-related technical literature, recordings, se-
curing results, mobility and sustainability, colors -
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