(2) Study objective

Teaching and education
The aim of the teacher training programme for the primary level at PH NÖ is to enable graduates to responsibly and qualitatively shape the broad field of education and teaching (of education as a whole) within the framework of societal (legal, social, European and global, civic) challenges with a focus on the pedagogical objectives preferred at the respective place of work and activity. It does not want to be, and must not be, merely a degree, combined with the qualification to teach children and young people at the primary level and to guide them in their education.

Civic co-responsibility
Educating children and young people up to the fourth grade and participating in their upbringing and education takes place in different settings as well as under conditions of diverse and sometimes different expectations and changing demands. Graduates are given responsibility towards individual young people and the community into which they grow within the framework of the free, democratic, and social constitutional state of Austria in the European context of diversity.

Profession-oriented qualification
As teachers in schools, graduates are qualified to apply the skills relevant to the teaching profession in a profession-oriented manner and to live them out under a high and responsible degree of freedom, to develop and expand them themselves, to continue to update them, and to take on tasks both independently and jointly in order to actively and passively participate in the process of innovative and evidence-oriented school development. Today, this requires targeted qualification for the fulfilment of tasks within the framework of teaching, school administration, and school law, especially in the use of and taking into account inclusive values, multilingual task areas, new media technologies, and health aspects in heterogeneous settings.

Scientific orientation
The teacher training programme for the primary level is research-led, evidence-oriented, and scientifically based on pedagogical action: It focuses on scientific insights and empirically and theoretically sound concepts as well as reflected normative positions for the pedagogical task fields in the context of the required disciplines in the professional environment of primary level education – all specific subject disciplines as well as educational sciences, psychology, sociology, philosophy, ethics, religion, and other scientific disciplines consulted for the accomplishment of the professional tasks. Acquiring expertise in this and the ability to reflect on it is a hallmark of continuous professional development during the study programme. This requires self-determination, initiative, personal responsibility, the ability and willingness to cooperate, a high level of reflection, a scientific foundation, transferability, and practical and everyday relevance on the part of the students. This requires a conscious professional ethos with a focused ability and willingness to learn, cognitive, motivational, volitional, and social abilities, and creativity.

Diversity and purposefulness
The study programme includes …

• analysing and reflecting on positions, values, norms, and goals in the philosophy of education and training
• Awareness of and reflection on the legal, social, (socio-)political, and economic conditions of schools
• Formation and training of the reception, analysis, reflection, and action skills required for this purpose
• Being familiar with and applying scientific methods, models, and theories for recording, describing, and explaining as well as for understanding pedagogical issues
• sustainable perspectives, principles, and guidelines for pedagogical practice

Findings, knowledge, abilities, and skills
Graduates are able to develop the educational mission in a systematic and research-oriented manner, to reflect on it in a science-based manner, and to realise it in an application-oriented manner. They …

• observe the educational mandate up to the 4th grade in a scientifically reflective manner
• have a differentiated, theoretical understanding of the meaning and requirements of the teaching profession in the context of primary level education
• understand basic subject-specific principles, positions, and structures and note the importance of connectible knowledge and skills for competent action
• make child-appropriate and relevant decisions for the selection and design of learning opportunities
• are familiar with basic methods and reflect on teaching in a way that is appropriate to objectives, content, meaning, and methods, taking into account subject-specific and pedagogical considerations
• justify options for dealing with heterogeneity and diversity in their inclusive education and teaching work
• have a differentiated insight into the development and promotion of cognitive, motivational, volitional, social, and emotional abilities as well as the language and communication abilities of children
• evaluate pupil performance in a way that is conducive to learning, objectively oriented towards performance, and subjectively places in a social context and use this evaluation for child-oriented feedback, counselling, and promotion of the changeable
• integrate the results and evidence of performance comparisons and the findings of school research into their pedagogical work,
• have an awareness of the challenges of transition at interfaces and act with adequate measures of transition pedagogy