Results of the first student survey in the teaching profession after the corona pandemic are available

Following an interruption due to the pandemic, first-year students on teacher training courses in the winter semester of 2022/23 were surveyed again for the first time since 2019 about their career choices and interests, their educational biography and their expectations with regard to teacher training. As part of the central introductory event for all first-semester teachers, 677, or over 80 percent, of all first-year students took part in the survey at the start of their studies.

For the first time, the extent to which first-year students have realistic expectations of the course content and the organization of the teacher training course was surveyed at the start of the 2022/23 course. After all, disappointed expectations are a reason for low student satisfaction. An initial look at the data shows that students expect to learn teaching-related skills such as imparting knowledge and dealing with pupils during their studies. Uncertainty becomes clear when it comes to the proportionate relationship between subject-specific and pedagogical-psychological and subject-didactic teaching content. In addition, a large proportion of respondents do not expect to attend courses with students from other degree programs. The first-year students also do not expect lecturers on teacher training courses to be primarily academics. Detailed evaluations are still pending - it is already clear that the results will provide important findings for the further development of information for prospective students and prospective teacher training students.

A comparison of the findings of the current student survey with the surveys from the years up to 2019 indicates that the most recent student cohort does not differ significantly from the student cohorts before the coronavirus pandemic in terms of key characteristics. Only the average age of first-year students has fallen slightly compared to the years before the pandemic. On average, first-year students in the winter semester 2022/23 are 20 years old. In terms of previous experience, the respondents hardly differ from first-year students in previous years. One in six respondents had already studied at TU Dresden before starting their teacher training program. However, only very few can look back on a completed first degree. Among the first-year students studying to become teachers at vocational schools, two thirds have previous professional experience in the form of an internship, training and/or work experience in the professional field matching their chosen department. This represents a slight decrease compared to the last cohorts surveyed.

At 80 percent, the proportion of first-year students from Saxony is still slightly higher than before the pandemic. Most first-year students chose TU Dresden as their place of study due to the attractiveness of the city and the Dresden region as well as its proximity to their hometown. In this respect, the respondents did not differ from previous cohorts. The hope that many of the first-year students will contribute to meeting the demand for teachers in Saxony's regions in a few years' time is therefore not unfounded.