Four young people try to understand each other via a string telephone

DIES LEGENDI – Teaching Day

'Let's communicate – discourse culture in courses' is the theme of the DIES LEGENDI – Teaching Day 
Four young people try to understand each other via a string telephone
Graphic: pathdoc/AdobeStock (processed with AI)

DIES LEGENDI – Teaching Day 2024

Greetings of the president Prof Dr Marx

Image: Laurenz Grieger

On 19 November 2024, the DIES LEGENDI - Teaching Day took place in the auditorium of the main university building from 12 noon to 5 pm. The topic ‘Let's communicate! Discourse culture in courses', Friedrich Schiller University Jena focused on the current questions of how communication culture influences the learning atmosphere and learning success, how teachers can promote lively and critical discourse and how mechanisms of public political discourse affect teaching spaces. More than 100 participants (in attendance and via livestream) were first able to follow the opening speech by the Vice President, Prof Dr Karina Weichold. In his subsequent welcoming address, the President, Prof. Dr Andreas Marx, emphasised the University of Jena's aspiration to not only focus on research excellence, but also to pursue a future-oriented approach to teaching. In the keynote speech ‘From the Bundestag to the seminar room - pride and prejudice in political discourse’, Prof Dr Tobias Rothmund offered an insight into the culture of communication in society in general, right through to university society. In an open discussion round and a parallel university didactics workshop, lecturers and students were able to delve deeper into the debate and discussion on the specific aspects of discourse culture in teaching.

Opening DIES LEGENDI - Teaching Day 2024

Image: Laurenz Grieger

Presentation of the Teaching Awards

This year, Ilka Hameister, Peter Starke and Dr Mario Ziegler (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences / Faculty of Philosophy) were awarded the University of Jena's general Teaching award for their outstanding didactic teaching concept. They gave an insight into their interdisciplinary block seminar ‘The controversy in the Classroom’ after the award ceremony.

(in German) Short presentation of the teaching project for the general Teaching award

Prof Dr Martin Ammon was awarded the teaching prize for ‘Special commitment in teaching’. In this competition, only students were authorised to nominate a lecturer. In the case of Prof Ammon's nomination, all selection criteria were deemed to have been fulfilled by the Academy for Teaching Development's panel of experts.

Presentation of the teaching award to Prof. Dr. Martin Ammon from President Prof. Dr. Marx

Image: Laurenz Grieger

Poster session of the teaching projects at the University of Jena

Nine teaching projects currently funded by the ALe and four externally funded projects presented themselves in a poster session. This was followed by an intensive exchange of experiences between the project managers and the participants.

Keynote

Prof Dr Tobias Rothmund succeeded in drawing a line from the culture of discourse in society to social media and university society with his keynote speech ‘From the Bundestag to the seminar room - pride and prejudice in political discourse’. Using the terms critical and fair rationality, he concluded by drawing implications for studying and teaching.

(in German) Keynote: From the Bundestag to the seminar room - pride and prejudice in political discourse

Workshop and Discussion

panel for the discussion

Image: Laurenz Grieger

The team from the 'LehreLernen' Service Centre discussed convincing arguments for promoting discourse in large courses in the workshop ‘Let's communicate! - Discourse in large courses’. Based on this, suitable methods were collected to effectively initiate such discourse. The results of the workshop were summarised in a presentation.

Parallel to the workshop, an open discussion round was held on the topic ‘Let's communicate! - Discourse culture in studying and teaching’, which was moderated by Katja B. Bär (CCO of the University of Jena). The panellists included Prof. Dr Christian Alexander (media law expert and Dean of Studies at the Faculty of Law) from the group of university lecturers, Ilka Hameister (teaching award winner; Institute of Political Science) from the mid-level faculty and Adrian Minnich (student member of the ALe expert committee; Faculty of Physics and Astronomy) from the student body. The discussion highlighted both the status quo and visions of modern discourse culture. The participants took an active part in the discussion.

Previous events

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The Teaching Award is presented with the support of the Sparkassenstiftung Jena-Saale-Holzland.