Receiving 25,000 euros, Dr. Linya Coers and Dr. Christian Staden were awarded first prize for their team-teaching project whose title translates to “Designing teaching and learning processes for select subject matter in multimedia.” Second prize and 15,000 euros went to Dr. Solveig Lena Hansen for her competition entry entitled “Establishing a curriculum in public health ethics in the Bremen health sciences.”
Senator Dr. Schilling: “Public attention in the field of science is often focused on research. However, it has long since been recognized that good university teaching must be based on good research. Equally, strong research only thrives on strong teaching. Two years ago, my company and I launched the Bremer Landeslehrpreis (Bremer State Award for Teaching) in order to appreciate this excellent work and to give it the attention it deserves.”
Professor Maren Petersen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies at the University of Bremen: “I am particularly pleased that representatives of intermediate academic staff are being honored in both categories and that the commitment and innovative strength of these individuals is clearly expressed in their teaching. Interdisciplinary teaching that is understood in an integrative way and successfully implemented requires a great deal of commitment beyond just the teaching staff. Establishing new modules and curricula is not a matter of course but requires a great deal of dedication.”
The Winners
With their joint subject and media didactic course, Dr Linya Coers (Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences) and Dr Christian Staden (Institute of Technology and Education) contribute to training future elementary school teachers who have adapted to the new information technology infrastructure and enabling them to impart knowledge via digital media such as iPads or the itslearning platform.
The Jury’s Assessment: The project makes an outstanding contribution to the updating and introduction of new forms of teaching in higher education and its relevance and transferability for teacher training is very high. The use of Open Educational Resources enhances the long-term impact of the project by developing a product that students can use in their professional lives and teachers in practice without a license. The team of two lecturers has excellently combined the acquisition of media skills, which is of fundamental importance for future teachers, with the acquisition of content-related, didactic skills of a course.
Dr. Solveig Lena Hansen (Faculty of Human and Health Sciences) is a lecturer in Public Health Ethics and has in recent years developed a curriculum for ethics in health sciences and integrated it into the existing Bremen degree courses.
The Jury’s Assessment: This approach to curriculum development is particularly worthy of recognition because it addresses the socially important and very topical issue of ethical reflection at all levels of the health care system, as well as the development of teaching formats with the close involvement of students and the use of inter-university cooperation. Dr. Hansen’s student-centric and reflective basic attitude as well as her basic didactic principles and the competence orientation of her courses set an exemplary standard for other teachers.
Senator Dr. Schilling would like to see a stronger debate about good teaching and good study conditions in the future: “The aim of teaching, if it is meant to enable people to carry out a qualified academic activity within and outside the scientific system, should not be just about accumulating existing knowledge. In my opinion, enthusiastic learning processes emerge when students are taken seriously, when they are enabled to comprehend cognitive processes in core areas of the discipline, and when they understand and establish the learning situation as a research situation. The award winners exemplify such an approach.”
About the Prize:
The Bremen University Prize for Outstanding Teaching was awarded for the first time in 2020 by the Senator for Science and Ports. It is endowed with a total prize money of 40,000 euros and is awarded for outstanding and innovative achievements in teaching, examining, advising, and supervising students at Bremen-based universities.
