Yet another success in the “Quality Campaign for Teacher Training”

The University of Freiburg and the University of Education (PH) Freiburg have enjoyed mutual success in the second round of the “Quality Campaign for Teacher Training”: The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has given a thumbs up on their application for further collaborations in the area of teacher training. Both universities will receive a total of 7.3 million euros from January 1, 2019 until December 31, 2023 to implement their planned projects. “After mutually building the cooperation network FACE – Freiburg Advanced Center of Education over the past few years, we are now providing our collaboration with a new, future-oriented perspective with the founding of a School of Education,” says University rector Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer. “It is essential because both universities need each other to promote the teaching profession: The University of Freiburg brings its academic knowledge while the University of Education provides its pedagogical expertise,” emphasizes Prof. Dr. Ulrich Druwe, the rector for the University of Education.

The goal is to found the School of Education in the first half of 2018 as a joint university-wide institution and to bring together the various activities in teaching, research and school practice of teacher education. The projects in the second phase of the “Quality Campaign for Teacher Training” will therefore run under the aegis of the School of Education FACE: It will further develop teacher training in order to harmonize and implement content as well as possible from the fields of science, education, subject-related didactics and practical phases in the bachelor's and master's programs. In the long run, students should create an e-portfolio, thereby documenting their learning progress over the various phases of the teacher training program.

Intercollegiate research efforts will also operate under the aegis of the School of Education FACE: For the 2019/2020 winter semester a research group will be founded to address the issue of inclusion and a research-oriented master’s program will be created at the University of Education Freiburg. In addition, the further work of the "Freiburger Praxiskolleg" (practice group), which includes schools and the state seminars for didactics and teacher training, will be coordinated at the School of Education. Among other things, it should promote exchanges, initiate further cooperation projects between schools and universities and develop and offer certificate courses for teachers working in further education.

www.face-freiburg.de

Background information

The universities in Baden-Württemberg are transitioning teacher training from the state examination to bachelor’s and master’s degrees: The bachelor’s degree program started in the 2015/2016 winter semester, the master’s program will follow during the 2018/2019 winter semester. This reform coincides with the “Quality Campaign for Teacher Training”, a joint initiative by the federal and state governments. The BMBF has tendered a total of 500 million euros for eight and a half years for the funding program. All German universities that offer teacher training were able to apply in the two-stage funding process.