Programme overview of the Teaching Master, including the World Teachers Programme profile.

• Mode of study: full-time 
• Credits: 60 ECTS (for information on the abridged WTP for qualified teachers, see below)
• Duration: 1 year
• Start date: end of August
• Language: Dutch and English (bilingual curriculum)
• Degree: Master’s degree, Dutch teaching qualification ‘eerstegraads onderwijsbevoegdheid’ and World Teachers Programme certificate

Curriculum

Programme for qualified teachers

Teachers with a Dutch teaching qualification for lower secondary education ((beperkte) tweedegraads onderwijsbevoegdheid) will be eligible for an abridged programme (verkort traject) of the WTP. 

• Mode of study: full-time 
• Credits: 30 ECTS
• Start date: end of January
• Duration: 0,5 year
• Language: Dutch and English (bilingual curriculum)
• Curriculum: courses of ‘Part 2’, see above

Information about the entrance requirements, admissions procedure and application deadline, tuition fee and costs, et cetera is available on the Dutch website of the Teaching Master: Master Leraar VHO or the Education specialisation.

Programme overview of the Educational minor (during bachelors) and Educational module (after bachelors), including the World Teachers Programme profile.

• Mode of study: full-time 
• Credits: 30 ECTS
• Duration: 0,5 year
• Start date: end of August
• Language: Dutch and English (bilingual curriculum)
• Degree: Dutch teaching qualification ‘beperkte tweedegraads onderwijsbevoegdheid’ (lower grades of secondary education) and World Teachers Programme certificate. NB: if you do the Educational minor, the teaching qualification will be assigned at your bachelor degree.

Curriculum

Information about the entrance requirements, admissions procedure and application deadline, tuition fee and costs, et cetera is available on the Dutch website of the Educational minor and Educational module.

Before the programme starts, you participate in Starting Days (Startdagen) to get to know the teachers and the programme and to prepare for your first internship days at school.

Teaching Practice 1 and 2

During the whole programme, you will spend about 3 days a week at a bilingual or international school in the Netherlands. For most WTP students, this will be one of our established WTP partner schools. You will be expected to teach to a range of classes and for at least 50% of the time in international and/or bilingual classes. The main focus of Teaching Practice 1 is on teaching lower grades (onderbouw); the main focus of Teaching Practice 2 is on the higher grades (bovenbouw).

Are you already teaching at a bilingual or international school but have no formal teaching qualification? It may be possible for you to carry out your teaching practice there. Please contact the admissions team to discuss the possibilities further.

Pedagogy in Practice 1 and 2

In this module, you will learn about general educational theory and relate it to your practice. The focus is on your professional development as a teacher and specifically as a World Teacher. You will also learn how to steer your own development, in close cooperation with your fellow-students and your (school) supervisors.

Pedagogy in Practice addresses the standard ICLON topics through perspectives specifically relevant to WTP. You will also learn about topics not addressed in the standard ICLON curriculum, such as:

• bilingual and international education contexts;
• content and language integrated learning (CLIL);
• intercultural communicative competence (ICC)
• culturally-responsive teaching.

In seminars and in assignments, you will be asked to apply the concepts discussed in your own practice and to reflect on this experience, as well as on implications for education and your own development more broadly.

Teaching Methodology 1 and 2

Together with students from your subject area, you will look at ways of tackling content and skills specific to your subject or discipline. Again, the link between theory and practice is key. For most subjects, this module will be taught in Dutch (or the target language in the case of Modern Languages). However, it is possible to hand in your written assignments in English if you prefer to do so.

Subject-specific research project

All Education Master students complete an educational research project. In the WTP, this project takes the form of Participatory Action Research (PAR), where learners are actively involved in helping teachers to investigate and improve a specific area of practice.

World Teachers Specialisation

This module builds further on the basic principles of linguistically and culturally-aware teaching and is linked to the WTP Action Research.

International Internship

In Semester 2, you have the option to spend 3-4 weeks at a school in another country. Some students travel as far as Kazakhstan or Curaçao, but some stay as close to home as Germany, Norway or the UK.

After the programme

As a WTP graduate, you have learned to:

• communicate effectively across languages and cultures;
• embrace diversity;
• support language development;
• be ready to question and be questioned.

Tessa Mearns

Tessa Mearns is an assistant professor at ICLON, specializing in bilingual education and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). She is Coordinator of the WTP and of the international internships, teaches the specialized WTP seminars and co-supervises the action research projects. Tessa trained as a teacher following her Modern Foreign Languages degree in the UK. In the Netherlands, she taught English in one of the country’s largest bilingual education (TTO) schools while working towards a European Doctorate under the supervision of Do Coyle and Rick de Graaff. She defended her thesis, Chicken, egg or a bit of both? Motivation in bilingual education (TTO) in the Netherlands, in 2015 and joined ICLON in 2016. As a researcher, she continues to publish and carry out research in the fields of bilingual education and CLIL.

Janneke Geursen

Janneke Geursen is a teacher educator in the World Teachers Programme at ICLON.  She worked as a teacher of English at a secondary school before becoming a teacher educator and foreign language methodologist at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. 
During her 14 years at the VU she taught and trained both pre-service and inservice teachers at all career levels, focusing on the teaching of language- and thinking skills. She was involved in the development of a training programme for teacher educators and takes part in several national committees related to the teaching of English. She became part of the WTP team at ICLON at the start of 2014 and also participates in the Professional Learning Community for teachers of English in Bilingual Schools.

Tamara Platteel

Tamara Platteel is a teacher educator specialized in action research and teacher learning. At ICLON she is a supervisor and research facilitator, and she is involved in in-service education. Her dissertation focused on teacher learning though action research and was published in 2010. She is also active in Onderwijsnetwerk Zuid-Holland (ONZ) and ICLON in-service programmes focused on facilitating research and teacher learning in general.

The World Teachers Programme is conducted in close cooperation with EP-Nuffic and partner schools.

• Alfrink College, Zoetermeer
• Amsterdam International Community School
• Berlage Lyceum, Amsterdam
• International School of The Hague
• Rijnlands Lyceum Oegstgeest
• Rijnlands Lyceum Sassenheim
• Rijnlands Lyceum/International School Wassenaar
• Rotterdam International Secondary School
• Scala College, Alphen aan den Rijn
• Wolfert Tweetalig, Rotterdam

At the start of each academic year, an online information meeting is held for WTP subject coaches and school supervisors (BOSses). You will be sent an invitation by email at the start of the year.

Teaching Practice

During the World Teachers Programme, students will spend about 3 days a week at a bilingual or international school in the Netherlands. Students are expected to teach to a range of classes and for at least 50% of the time in the international and/or bilingual department.

• Semester 1: Teaching Practice 1 with a focus on teaching in junior years.
• Semester 2: Teaching Practice 2 with a focus on teaching in senior years.

See the ICLON Factsheet School Practice* for brief information about and important dates of Teaching Practice 1 and Teaching Practice 2. The general timeline is shown in the Timeline: School Practice*. 

*See page Praktijkdeel van de opleiding

Assessment of Teaching Practice

The WTP Supervisor will contact all WTP Subject Coaches (and BOSses) with further information about the assessment of Teaching Practice.

You are very welcome at our (online) information meetings about the WTP and other programmes, organised every Autumn and Spring. The date of the next meeting can be found at: Voorlichtingsactiviteiten Lerarenopleiding. 

Please note that the information sessions about the WTP are in English whereas those about the regular Teaching Master, Educatieve minor and Educatieve module are always in Dutch.