Teacher training: Double success for the University of Kassel

The Joint Science Conference has decided to support, among others, four Hessian universities with individual and collaborative projects in the additional funding round of the "Quality Offensive Teacher Education": the TU Darmstadt, the Goethe University Frankfurt, the Justus Liebig University Giessen and the University of Kassel. The new round of funding focuses on "Digitization in Teacher Education" and/or "Teacher Education for Vocational Schools."

Science Minister Angela Dorn welcomed the decision: "Teachers need to be fit for ever new challenges. The basis for this is their studies. Our universities are successfully providing the impetus for this. Already in the first and second funding period of the 'Quality Offensive Teacher Education' they were able to push through all their applications. The fact that Hessen's universities are now also so successful in the additional funding phase shows that our teacher education meets the highest quality standards. This is a great success!"

Two applications from the University of Kassel were successful:

Focus on vocational schools
In the joint project "TWIND - Network for Integrated Technology and Business Didactics," in which the TU Darmstadt and the University of Kassel, among others, are participating, media packages for teachers in the industrial-technical and commercial-administrative fields are being developed and made freely available nationwide via an online platform. The Kassel sub-project is receiving funding of around 375,000 euros.

Focus on digitization
The University of Kassel is pursuing the goal of systematically and sustainably improving teacher training through digital teaching and learning offerings with its "Professionalization in the Kassel Digitization Network (PRONET-D)" project. On the one hand, this involves the use of digital feedback in teacher training at the university, and on the other, the use of digital media in classrooms - for example, explanatory videos or single-board computers in physics lessons. The PRONET-D project alone is being funded with around 1.25 million euros; it will start next March and run until the end of 2023.

The "Quality Initiative in Teacher Education" supports universities in better preparing future teachers for school practice. The federal and state governments are providing up to 500 million euros in total through 2023 in a competitive, multi-stage process. The University of Kassel had already been successful in the two previous bidding rounds. In 2018, the Joint Science Conference (GWK) decided to supplement the "Quality Offensive Teacher Education" from 2020 with a new funding round of 79 million euros focusing on "Digitization in Teacher Education" and/or "Teacher Education for Vocational Schools".