UP Press Releases - University of Potsdam

Media information 02-09-2024 / No. 082

The goal of the Center for Teacher Training and Education Research (ZeLB), which was founded in 2014, was to bring teacher training into the focus of the entire university as a cross-sectional task and to link it more closely with research. A ceremony on Golm campus on September 6, 2024, will honor all the achievements of the first ten years. Among the guests are Brandenburg's Minister of Science Dr. Manja Schüle and Minister of Education Steffen Freiberg. “Anniversaries are an opportunity to take stock," says ZeLB Director Prof. Dr. Andreas Borowski. “But we also want to look at how teacher training and continuing education as well as education research will develop in the medium term,” announces the physics didactics expert, who has been the head of the center since 2016. Prof. Dr. Felicitas Thiel from Freie Universität Berlin will give the keynote speech on “Training and education of teaching degree students at universities – missed opportunities, enforced reforms, consolidated structures, and unfinished business.”

“To meet the great demand for highly qualified teachers, we have tremendously expanded teacher training with funding from the state of Brandenburg. Filling 20 new professorships and creating 1,000 new spots for students in teaching degree programs was a mammoth task that could not have been accomplished without the coordination and commitment of the ZeLB,” emphasizes the President of the University of Potsdam, Prof. Oliver Günther, Ph.D.

“At the same time, we have increased the quality of the programs for pre-service teachers,” adds Dr. Britta van Kempen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies. “Our goal is to make teacher training programs both research-based and profession-oriented, i.e. to incorporate new subject-specific and didactic findings into the curricula and provide access to practical experiences at an early stage. The ZeLB is a high-performance institution at the university that tackles these challenges in a goal-oriented and competent manner,” van Kempen added.

The ZeLB is currently working on intensifying the transfer of the latest findings in educational science into teaching practice. Plans for a university school in Potsdam are taking shape. The internationalization of teacher training is also progressing with a global network of partner schools, research collaborations, and training projects.

With the ZeLB, which succeeded the Center for Teacher Training in 2014, the University of Potsdam has created a decentralized organizational structure in which all teacher training faculties assume joint responsibility. The ZeLB sees itself as a communication and competence center for all issues relating to teacher training, which performs central tasks, advises the faculties, offers them support and eases their workload.

Representatives of the media are requested to register for the ceremony at: ZeLB-GSuuni-potsdampde

Time: Sep. 6, 2024, 2:00 - 6:30 p.m.
Location: University of Potsdam, Golm Campus, K.-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Building 27, Room 0.01
Contact: Dr. Mirko Wendland, Managing Director of the ZeLB
E-Mail: mirko.wendlanduuni-potsdampde
Phone: +49 331 977-256005
Internet: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/zelb

Media information 02-09-2024 / No. 082

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