Student Workload for Study Projects

Results of a SurveyAssessing Student Workload in a Long-Term School Placement at the University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract

The five-month school placement constitutes a compulsory module within the Master of Education in initial teacher education (ITE) in North RhineWestphalia. It offers new opportunities to future school teachers to expand their professional  competencies  at  three  different  locations:  school,  teacher  training college (Zentrum für schulpraktische Lehrerausbildung) and university. The main goal is to link theoretical learning and practical application as an integral element of  ITE:  students  create  theory-led  study  projects  to  be  executed  during  their school placement as part of their university curriculum, as well as planning and
delivering subject-based teaching units in class. How do students cope with the complexity  of  this  new  practical  element?  One  indicator  is  the  students’  workload. First conclusions can be drawn from a workload survey designed, tested and conducted at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). Weekly measures of (selfreported) hours of work spent on the different tasks were taken throughout the entire module. Firstly, there is a description of the concept and structure of study projects, which are the key element of the module. Next, an  overview of the current state of research is given, and the methodology of the present workload survey and its core results are presented. The key result is that the reported workload
for study projects significantly exceeds the scheduled workload, which is based on the modules’ guidelines and assigned ECTS points. The results vary between individual students and phases throughout the module. Finally, the results are discussed and a conclusion for further research is drawn.