Teaching award

Every year, the best course concept (€ 2,500*) is honoured with the Teaching Award by the Academy for Teaching Development's panel of experts.

^{*The prize money is earmarked and must be used for the further improvement of teaching at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.}

In addition to the teaching prize for the best course concept, the ALe's panel of experts has established the themed Teaching Prize 2025 with the following main topic: "Where new things are created - Interdisciplinary teaching as a place of innovation" (€2,500*).

This thematic focus will recognise teaching concepts that integrate interdisciplinary perspectives in an innovative and sustainable way. We are looking for teaching formats that bring together different disciplines in order to shed light on scientific issues from multiple perspectives and enable students to develop interdisciplinary ways of thinking and approaches to complex problems. The focus here is on courses that go beyond the mere juxtaposition of disciplinary content and enable genuine integrative cooperation between different subject cultures.

Other aspects may include

• Creating learning settings in which students gain a deeper understanding of the learning content and enhanced problem-solving skills by working together in interdisciplinary teams
• unusual teaching methods or collaborative formats that promote exchange between subjects and provide teaching staff with new scientific impulses from joint teaching
• Identify suitable (teaching and) examination formats for interdisciplinary teaching
• Utilising interdisciplinary approaches to promote creative and innovative ways of thinking
• Teaching concepts that address current social, technological or economic challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective

Courses that go beyond addressing the concept of interdisciplinarity, integrate interdisciplinarity as a design approach into teaching practice and/or have tested new, experimental approaches to promote interdisciplinary thinking and learning can be nominated.

The deadline for this year's teaching award nominations is 3 May 2026 (cut-off deadline).

Both teaching awards will be presented during this year's DIES LEGENDI - Teaching Day on 17 November 2026. In addition to awarding the teaching prizes and presenting the teaching projects funded by the ALe, the DIES LEGENDI - Teaching Day is the annual format for exchanging ideas and thoughts on studying and teaching across disciplines and across the university.

^{*The prize money is earmarked for a specific purpose and must be used for the further improvement of teaching at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.}