On 25th and 26th September the University of Bremen will be hosting a two-day conference on good academic teaching practice. It will be held on the campus, and some 200 participants from Germany, Austria, Great Britain and the USA are expected to attend. The conference starts at 11 am on Thursday 25th.
The main focus of the high-level conference is to take a critical look at how subjects are taught at universities and student learning processes. Two hundred academics from Germany, Austria, Great Britain and the United States of America have registered for the two-day international event. It is the third conference to take place on a topic which is of such importance for tertiary education. The two previous events were held at the Universities of Bochum and Mainz. The University of Bremen is proud to have been chosen to host this year’s gathering, which is being held within the context of the German Rectors’ Conference Nexus project. It also comes as a welcome opportunity to present its own project called “Research-based Learning from the Outset”, which is funded by the German Ministry for Education and is proving highly successful. The conference is considered to be so important that it is being funded in an amount of 30,000 euros by the German Research Foundation. And the University of Bremen Foundation is also taking a share of the costs, as well as the Friends of Bremen University, the “unifreunde”, who are contributing 3,000 euros.
Motto: “Academic teaching within and across disciplines”
University teaching should be seen as a process: A process that has to be prepared, implemented, evaluated and communicated with scientific insights. It also calls for a research-oriented approach on the part of students. Academic teaching and student learning processes are therefore to be seen as a scientifically-founded whole – within the context of the disciplines taught and subject-related research, as well as that of teaching/learning research. It is important to pay attention to international trends and foster the development of disciplinary communities engaged in academic teaching and university studies. Among other things, the conference will deal with topics such as skill-based teaching and learning and problem-centered assignments as guiding educational principles. Over the two days of the conference there will also be a number of subject-specific workshops at which students are also invited to attend. Among the subjects represented are: Engineering Sciences/Informatics, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Art and Music, Jurisprudence, Social Sciences, Economics, as well as Linguistics, Cultural Studies and the Liberal Arts. The workshops will present instructors and students with an opportunity to exchange views on good teaching practice in their respective disciplines – and on the whole.
Program for 25th and 26th September 2014:
The conference will take place on the University campus. “Teaching is Touching the Future” kicks off on Thursday 25th September at 11 am in the main lecture hall HS 2010 (the Keksdose) with opening addresses by the Rector of the University of Bremen, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, a spokesperson for the German Rectors’ Conference Nexus project, and the University’s Vice Rectress for Academic Teaching and Learning, Professor Heidi Schelhowe. This will be followed by plenary lectures by Bill Sullivan (Carnegie Foundation, USA), Carolin Kreber (University of Edinburgh), James Wisdom (Higher Education Academy, London), Peter Felten (Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University, USA), and “Investigations of Teaching Culture” performed by the University of Bremen’s Theater der Versammlung. On the first day there will also be a number of workshops in different disciplines. At 7 pm, Bremen’s Senator for Education and Science, Professor Eva Quante-Brandt, will welcome guests at a reception in the City Hall. On the following day, Friday 26th September, there will be an open panel discussion on the topic of massive open online courses with the title "Post MOOC hype – is there a future for the non-virtual university?" The conference ends later in the day at 4pm. You can find the full program under: http://www.tittf.uni-bremen.de/programm/
If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:
University of Bremen
The Vice Rectress for Academic Teaching and Learning
Prof.Dr. Heidi Schelhowe
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Event Office:
Universität Bremen
Melanie Schaumburg
Phone: +49 421 218-64378
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