Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and network partners develop digital teaching-learning tools for vocational teacher training
11 June 2019
The proposal for "Technology and Business: Integrated Education (TWIND)", submitted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and its partners – TU Darmstadt, the University of Kassel, and the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd – was positively evaluated in the third round of the Teacher Training Quality Campaign jointly funded by the German federal and state governments. Over the next four years, JGU will receive EUR 1.2 million to develop and sustainably establish teaching-learning approaches and tools for vocational teacher training. In total, the collaborative of four universities receives EUR 2.4 million.
"This is the third time that Mainz University has been successful in the Teacher Training Quality Campaign thanks to its extensive and excellent projects. This confirms that we at JGU play a major role in the development and implementation of modern, sustainable teacher training structures and instructional tools," said Professor Georg Krausch, President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. "Our teacher training concept is academically ambitious, practice-oriented, and methodologically innovative," emphasized Professor Stephan Jolie, the JGU Vice President for Learning and Teaching. "With TWIND we can build bridges to technically oriented vocational subjects and strengthen the cooperation between vocational and general education."
Sustainable establishment of digital teaching-learning tools
The TWIND project develops and establishes digital teaching-learning approaches and tools for the effective initial and continuing education of prospective teachers at vocational schools. It aims to integrate technical, business-related, and general subjects more strongly in the curricula and instruction of vocational schools. The project focuses on the subjects Business and Economics Education, German Studies, and Social Studies. "In a process of transformation, complex new challenges are arising in our increasingly digitized working world. The merging of business, technology, and general education represents major progress when it comes to the initial and continuing education of teachers," affirmed Professor Markus Höffer-Mehlmer of the JGU Teacher Training Center (ZfL), who will be heading this collaborative project.
"We have laid the groundwork for this innovative collaborative project by conducting a series of projects in recent years. In TWIND, we draw on our experience with computer- and video-based tools that have already been successfully tested. These tools use actual teacher-student interactions to prepare prospective teachers to deal with the complex professional demands while they are still studying," said Dr. Christiane Kuhn, Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, and Professor Christian Dormann from the Department of Business and Economics Education at JGU.
The Teacher Training Quality Campaign
The German government is allocating up to EUR 500 million for the Teacher Training Quality Campaign until 2023. In 2018, the Joint Science Conference (GWK) decided to supplement the campaign with a new round of funding to the tune of EUR 79 million starting in 2020, focusing on digitalization in teacher training and/or teacher training for vocational schools. The projects were selected by a committee consisting of 18 members representing the academic world: teacher training institutes, students, and members of the federal and state governments. To receive federal support, the federal states where the universities are located must have fully implemented Article 7 of the agreement between the German federal and state governments of April 12, 2013, which is meant to ensure the mutual recognition of teacher training degrees and qualifications.