Teacher training at the University of Kassel convinces: millions in funding through quality initiative

The decision that the University of Kassel will be among only 19 universities initially funded (out of 80 applicants) was announced by the Federal Ministry of Education in Berlin on Wednesday. Kassel's teacher education program will be funded with about 5 million euros, which will be available during the period from 2015 to 2018. The university will contribute 500,000 euros from its own funds.

The joint concept of the Center for Teacher Education (ZLB) and the University's Center for Empirical Teaching/Learning Research (ZELL) aims at "Professionalization through Networking" (PRONET). It provides for linking subject-specific, subject-didactic and educational science study contents in such a way that they complement and deepen each other. In concrete terms, this means, for example: A physics teacher candidate deals with magnetism in a subject-specific course; accompanying or following this, the subject didactics of physics offers a seminar on student ideas about magnetism and how these can be further developed on the basis of science. "This is by no means a matter of course and requires coordination and thematic agreement between the lecturers already when planning the events," explains Prof. Dr. Dorit Bosse, chair of the Center for Teacher Education. "The University of Kassel is already comparatively far along in this kind of cooperation. But we want to continue to improve and offer our students optimal dovetailing."

The concept also includes an expanded range of courses to prepare future teachers for the challenge of inclusion and heterogeneous classes. Finally, a third field of action provides for the further strengthening of "reflective practical studies." This includes not only practical phases at schools, but also seminars with a clear reference to the professional field and a reflexive examination of the demands of the teaching profession. This is one of the strengths of the University of Kassel, as it has an unusually large number of study workshops - laboratories, as it were - in which innovative teaching methods can be tested with school classes, among other things.

Advantages of subject didactics and close interlinking

In the coming years, the university will be able to use the funds from the "Quality Offensive Teacher Education" to hire additional scientists for teaching programs, as well as personnel to coordinate courses at an early stage or to be responsible for implementing the concept. Its broad anchoring in the university is also reflected in the fact that 33 university lecturers from 19 disciplines of the university are involved in the project. Prof. Bosse, Dr. Ellen Christoforatou (both ZLB), Prof. Dr. Friederike Heinzel (Institute of Educational Science), Prof. Dr. Frank Lipowsky, Katharina Deistler (both ZELL) and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mayer (didactics of biology) worked closely together for over a year on the application that has now been approved. "Without the intensive cooperation of these individuals and the close coordination with other colleagues from the subject didactics and subject sciences, educational science and psychology, this success would not have been possible," says Prof. Lipowsky.

The individual measures are coordinated by the Center for Teacher Education and evaluated and analyzed by the University's Center for Empirical Teaching/Learning Research. The results will also be made available for teacher training and thus reach schools and study seminars in the region in the short term.

"The funding is a recognition of the excellent teacher training that is one of the focal points of our university," said the university's vice president, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hänlein, with pleasure. "At the same time, the financial support enables us to further expand and develop this focus. Anyone who takes up a teaching degree at our university knows that he or she will receive a state-of-the art university education: according to the latest scientific findings and with the best framework conditions."

About one-fifth of all students at the University of Kassel are teacher candidates. One of the strengths of teacher education in Kassel, in addition to the large number of study workshops, is that almost all subject areas are assigned a subject didactics - so the subject areas of physics are joined by a subject didactics of physics, and so on. The Kassel program for teacher education is also unique in other respects: "Building on research results and surveys of Kassel students and graduates, we have developed a tailor-made program for our teacher education in Kassel that is innovative and at the same time makes optimal use of our strengths and has also met with approval from the reviewers," Prof. Lipowsky was pleased to say.

To the BMBF press release: http://www.bmbf.de/de/26278.php

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Dorit Bosse
University of Kassel
Center for Teacher Education
Tel.: +49 561 804-3617
Email: zlb[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Prof. Dr. Frank Lipowsky
University of Kassel 
Center for Empirical Teaching/Learning Research
Tel: +49 561 804-3613
Email: lipowsky@uni-kassel.de

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Communication, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
Email: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de