New Concepts for University Instruction - BCF among awardees: The University of Freiburg has recognized six projects from various disciplines with the Instructional Development Award (IDA) 2012. The awards are worth € 70,000 each.
Reviewers in conversation with IDA awardees. (Image: Abteilung Lehrentwicklung)
The University of Freiburg has presented the IDA since 2009. It is part of the university’s concept for instructional development with the title “Windows for Higher Education”. The concept won in 2009 in the competition for excellent teaching, held by the “Stifterverband” and the “Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder”.
For the Bernstein Center Freiburg, Stefan Rotter and Janina Kirsch won the award for their project “Interdisciplinary path of education in the neurosciences”:
“The brain is a complex field for research, requiring the abilities and methods of several disicplines. Therefore, many students initially shy away from the neurosciences upon their first contact with them. In order to accommodate both the needs of students and the requirements of the scientific field, the project will allow a course of studies during which the students will be systematically prepared for the future challenges of their field of research, all the way from the bachelor’s to PhD studies.
In order to achieve this, concepts for course contents and their didactic preparations will be developed further. In the end, students will acquire – step by step – the necessary competence in order to become the next generation to explore and understand the brain.”
Press release at the university's website [in German]