This is the 23rd time the University of Bremen has awarded the Berninghausen Prize for outstanding teaching. The jury selects the winners on the basis of their exceptional commitment and creative approach to university teaching. Endowed with a total of 6,000 euros, the Berninghausen Prize is awarded by the “unifreunden” (friends of the University of Bremen and Jacobs University Bremen) upon recommendations put forward by students and teachers of the University of Bremen. The prize is named after its sponsor, the late Friedo Berninghausen.
In his address during the prize giving ceremony Gerd-Rüdiger Kück, Bremen’s Secretary of State for Education, pointed out that the University of Bremen was the first in Germany to award a prize for outstanding teaching. University Vice-Rector Thomas Hoffmeister expressed his gratitude to the Berninghausen family and the unifreunden for their continuing support and appreciation for “good teaching” at the University of Bremen.
The 2015 prize winners:
Students belonging to the same Faculties as the prize winners explain in their own words why they supported this year’s nominees for the Berninghausen Prize.
“…everybody pulled together”
Jan Röhm, a student of political science, explained why Dr. Janna Wolff was nominated for her teaching during the research seminar “Population Policy – A Comparative Study of European Health Policies”: “Everybody was given the opportunity to bring in the topic that interested them most: Assisted suicide is just one case in point. Janna Wolff gave individual attention to the methodology students applied to dealing with the different topics. She always demonstrated utmost flexibility and provided optimal support.” The prize winner responded by returning the praise. “As an instructor I’m wasting my time if my students don’t take part actively. And during the seminar everybody pulled together and provided maximum input.”
“… a professor who lives for his students”
The prize for “Excellent contemporary delivery” went to Professor Jens Pöppelbuß. The jury described his lecture course titled “Business Process Management“ in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration as outstanding particularly because of his practice of allowing student groups to independently deal with work packages using modern tools developed in the practice. One of his students, Jana Sell, found the following words of praise for his teaching: “It takes something special to get students worked up about such a dull topic. If you ask my fellow students about their opinion of Jens Pöppelbuß you’ll find they simply rave about him. He’s really an example of a professor who lives for his students.”
“…motivated with humorous tasks”
The students’ recommendation prize was awarded to Dr. Volkmar Zielasek for his “Calculation Methods in the Natural Sciences”. Two of his students, Petra Martinovic and Jan Makow, gave a small presentation comprising visual impressions of the seminar. They commented: “Volkmar Zielasek managed to create an entertaining atmosphere throughout the entire semester and he kept us motivated with humorous tasks. We found ourselves looking forward to his courses – even although they were on the subject of calculation methods! He went on explaining things until even the not-so-bright students fully understood.”
