dual learning

Discussions with various stakeholders in the education sector, KOCB (Catholic Education Centre Brussels), OCB (Education Centre Brussels), school boards in Brussels and the surrounding area, and school administrators reveal that current needs in primary education are widespread and similar. These needs can be reduced to three crucial points:

Unqualified teachers in the classroom

Support for teachers in schools

Teachers who have an affinity with the Brussels context

At Odisee – Brussels campus, we want to address these needs and will start with a dual programme in Early Childhood Education and a dual programme in Primary Education. This means that we offer the programme to people who are already working in primary education and want to obtain a degree. Dual learning is primarily intended to make it possible to combine work and study. The workplace is given a place in the programme and the programme is given a place in the workplace.

There are many programmes for lateral entrants at universities of applied sciences, but research has shown that there is a high dropout rate in these programmes. This is due to a number of factors:
•    The combination of education and workplace is not aligned due to programmes that are often still too linear in their design.
•    There is a heavy burden of proof for evaluation purposes in the programme in combination with daily classroom practice.
•    Guidance from the programme and guidance in the workplace is not sufficiently coordinated.

Based on the literature and field research, we have come to the following conclusions to increase the chances of success for these lateral entrants in training:
We know that lateral entrants have very different starting points and that their expectations of becoming a teacher are sometimes unrealistic. After all, this requires a change in their professional identity; they are crossing a boundary into a different profession with different expectations and in a different context. Focusing on intake interviews with the lateral entrant, employer – in this case the school and training programme – will be very important in order to arrive at a study programme that offers sustainable opportunities both at the school and in the training programme.

Specifically, we want to focus on intake interviews with attention to
-    EVC-EVK
-    reflection on current professional identity,
-    aligning expectations in the transition to education
-    the importance of social networks in the school (encouraging active pursuit of these)
-    creating a flexible course package throughout the programme based on the lateral entrant's own story and study history and adapted to the specific job content at the school.
High-quality guidance in the workplace and in the programme appears to be crucial to strengthening their job satisfaction, motivation and self-efficacy, as well as their resilience, and to quickly move from self-concern to task and learner orientation.
That is why we want to focus on “training together” in the dual programme. This requires a specific form of cooperation between the university college, the workplace and the lateral entrant, with each party contributing their expertise and focusing on maximising the lateral entrant's growth. In this vision, the guidance of lateral entrants in the workplace cannot be provided solely by initial supervisors, management and fellow teachers. The presence of supervisors from the programme is also necessary to continuously bridge the gap between the programme and the work context in order to progress towards a degree. This also allows us to see opportunities to reduce the burden of proof in the evaluation within the programme for these lateral entrants.