Teaching Award

Friedrich Schiller University Jena annually rewards excellent teaching concepts with Teaching Awards..

Teaching Award symbol: a golden paper plane flies ahead of three white paper planes

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The Teaching Award of the University of Jena

The teaching award is to recognize special commitment to teaching and make exemplary teaching concepts visible. All professors and academic employees at the University who are involved in teaching can be nominated. In addition to individuals, teams can be nominated as well. Direct applications are also accepted.

An award is presented for the best course concept. Since 2015, an additional award has been presented in a thematic priority area that changes every year.

The concepts of the teaching award winners are presented on the pages of the Service Centre for Higher Education Didactics (LehreLernen) as Good practices de— together with a selection of other examples of innovative teaching design.

The call for nominations for the Teaching Award is supported by the Sparkassenstiftung Jena-Saale-HolzlandExternal link.

Who selects the award winners?

The panel of experts of the Academy for Teaching Development selects the award winners on the basis of the nomination documents received.

What are the selection criteria?

Teaching concepts rated as outstanding in at least one of the following criteria can receive a teaching award:

innovative teaching methods and learning materials are used in a target group-specific manner
the didactic design of the course supports the learning process and success of the students in a special way
exemplary forms of interaction between teachers and students are used.

Who can be nominated?

All professors and academic employees working in teaching at Friedrich Schiller University Jena can be nominated. In addition to individual teachers, teams can also be nominated.

Who may nominate?

students (a minimum of five)
subject-specific student representative committees
academic staff
professors

How can nominations be submitted?

In addition to nominations by students and/or other teachers, direct applications are also possible.
A nomination form is available which must be completed in order to submit a nomination. The completed form, together with the other necessary nomination documents, must then be sent by email to the Academy for Teaching Development (ale@uni-jena.de) by the application deadline.

All annually updated call documents, including the nomination form, are usually released in February/March of the respective year.

Teaching Award 2023

In 2023, prizes were awarded for the best teaching concept (€2,500), as well as the teaching award with the thematic focus 'Good examination practices' (€2,500). Two outstanding teaching concepts were ultimately selected for the 2023 teaching awards:

Due to the quality of many nominations received, the panel first agreed on a shortlist for each of the awards. These were as follows:

general Teaching Award:

Prof. Dr. Martin Leiner and PD Dr. Roland M. Lehmann with the course 'theology of peace'
PD Dr. Barbara Aehnlich with the course 'Historical sources in digital age | Flurnamen und Digitalisierung'
Dr. Stephanie Viebranz and Dr. Marco Dederichs with the course 'theoretical course supervision in prosthetics'

thematic Teaching Award:

PD Dr. Barbara Aehnlich with the course 'Historical sources in digital age | Flurnamen und Digitalisierung'
Dr. Silke Braselmann with the course 'Introduction to English subject didactics'
Mark Blacher with the course 'Algorithm Engineering'

The prize for the best course design (€ 2,500) is awarded to Dr. Stephanie Viebranz und Dr. Marco Dederichs (Faculty of Medicine) for the seminar 'theoretical course supervision in prosthetics'.

The selection is justified as follows:
The course 'theoretical course supervision in prosthetics' is awarded for a didactically multifaceted teaching concept. The two lecturers succeed in addressing the learning objectives in an outstanding way by combining suitable teaching methods. The use of different methods and media (e.g. Peyton Method, Audience Response Systems) is carried out in a didactically justified manner and is systematically implemented. The consistent work is the key element of the concept. It is based on case studies on complex real treatment cases. The students are particularly well enabled to deepen the theoretically acquired knowledge and also to combine it with the practical skills necessary in the field of prosthodontics by independently dealing with clinical and radiological diagnostics. Furthermore, the students gain a profound understanding of the complexity of such cases. The intensive interaction with the students is particularly important, which is used, among other aspects, to constantly adapt the seminar to the learning level and needs of the students. The very high participation rate among all enrolled students in this optional course shows that it is also an extraordinary course from the students' point of view.

The prize in the thematic focus 'good examiation practices' (2,500 €) is awarded to Dr. Silke Braselmann (Faculty of Arts) for the seminar 'Introduction to English subject didactics'.

The selection is justified as follows:
The award-winning seminar receives the teaching award in this year's thematic focus because the teacher has used "multimodal take-home exams", an innovative and competence-oriented examination format that consistently follows didactic premises and can thus act as a model for other subject areas. This examination format succeeds in a special way in addressing higher levels of competence relevant to the profession than in conventional examinations. In addition, the highly relevant multilingualism is promoted in English didactics. Already during the semester, students are introduced to the practical activity of lesson planning, starting from theoretical basics. Within the examination, the students have 48 hours to independently create a lesson plan, to justify it didactically and to reflect on it. In addition, the knowledge of the subject is tested by means of a short essay to be written.
It should be particularly emphasised that this is an inclusion sensitive examination format. This enables students to work in their own time and work structures and at the same time promotes their academic independence.

Announcement of the thematic focus 2024

The panel of experts of the ALe published the thematic focused Teaching Award 2024: 'special commitment to teaching' in addition to the best course design (2.500 €). The call for proposals for the focus is subject to the unique condition that only students (at least five) and student councils of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena are entitled to nominate.

The call for proposals for the thematic focus "Special commitment to teaching" is intended to recognise lecturers who show outstanding commitment to teaching in their course(s). This includes, for example, creating a climate and relationships conducive to learning. Nominations can also be made for lecturers who create ideal external working conditions and, not least as a result, make it possible for students to understand the learning content in a special way.

Other aspects can include:

continuous support of learning
feedback on learning progress and performance
transparent performance expectations
further development of own teaching
support for students with regard to examinations

The submission deadline for the Teaching Award nominations is the beginning of May 2024.
The nomination documents will be published on this page by the beginning of March 2024.