To strengthen coherence in the first phase of teacher training at the location, nearly 100 stakeholders in teacher training from Freiburg gathered in the university auditorium on February 7, 2025. Participants from the University of Freiburg, the University of Education Freiburg and the Freiburg University of Music who teach subjects for teacher education in Gymnasien and educational sciences, as well as representatives from the Seminare für Ausbildung und Fortbildung der Lehrkräfte Freiburg (Gymnasium und Berufliche Schulen) exchanged information about the structure and content of teaching and practical phases.
The meeting focused in particular on exchanges with colleagues from partner institutions and the cooperation between the participating institutions. The event thus continued the tradition of round tables, which have served for many years to coordinate teacher training between universities and seminaries in the region, thereby promoting coherence in teacher training. The seminar last hosted an event in November 2023. The event, ‘Well taught“ („Bestens unterrichtet – Kohärenz in der gymnasialen Lehrkräftebildung“), followed on from this meeting and invited all teacher training subjects to seek or intensify exchanges with partner institutions.
The programme included three keynote speeches and an intensive discussion phase. In her welcome address, Katja Limbächer (Head of the Department Gymnasiales Lehramt and Head of the UFR Office of the School of Education FACE) began by referring to the currently much-discussed reports from academia and politics on reducing the shortage of teachers and the need for reform in current teacher training. Dr Katharina Hellmann (Head of the PH Office of the School of Education FACE) followed with an academic introduction to the concept of ‘coherence’.
In the first keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Frank Bezner (Deputy Executive Director of the School of Education FACE) addressed the challenge of profession-oriented teaching from the perspective of the humanities. As a representative of the Faculty of Philology, which offers teacher education programmes in subjects such as German, English and French, he proposed the establishment of subject councils and the appointment of teacher education ambassadors in order to strengthen the dissemination of profession-oriented teaching content in the specialist sciences and at the same time highlight issues specific to teacher education. Labelling individual courses as particularly suitable for teacher education or school practice could also be a way of addressing students and meeting specific needs in their studies and teaching.
The second presentation dealt with interdisciplinary elements in the Master of Education programme: Dr. Ulrich Maneval and Michael Sorge (both department heads at Seminar Freiburg Gymnasium) presented ‘The school practice semester in the Master of Education programme’. They illustrated the scope and objectives of this twelve-week practical phase as well as the intensive support provided by the seminar. Prof. Dr. Jörg Wittwer and Dr. Johannes Vollmer (both from the Institute of Education, University of Freiburg) then highlighted the importance of educational science for teacher training with regard to meta-reflection on teaching and professionalism. They also presented the individual modules of the educational science components in teacher training.
Dr Olaf Hildebrand (Head of Department at the Freiburg Seminar) and Reinhard Schmitt-Hartmann (Director of the Freiburg Seminar) addressed the transition from university to practical training phase for teacher education in the third and final presentation. They explained how the training of trainee teachers in preparatory service is structured by the seminar in the various phases and discussed the skills required of prospective teachers for the teaching profession. Comprehensive preparation for all subject-specific and school-related content is not possible, but good preparation in preparatory service can ensure that prospective teachers are as well suited as possible to the role.
Moderated by Dr. Anna Rosen (Deputy Head of the Department Gymnasiales Lehramt), all participants then engaged in a direct exchange. Divided into subject groups, they discussed key topics such as the transitions between the phases of teacher training, cooperation and teaching formats. The participants‘ wishes and challenges were also addressed, and concrete proposals for future cooperation were made.
The renewed meeting and joint exchange between participants from all institutions in this setting was described by many in the closing session as very beneficial. The event ‘Bestens unterrichtet – Kohärenz in der gymnasialen Lehrkräftebildung’ (Well taught – coherence in grammar school teacher training) was organised by the university’s department Gymnasiales Lehramt, the School of Education FACE and the Seminar für die Aus- und Fortbildung der Lehrkräfte Freiburg in order to further strengthen cooperation in teacher education for Gymnasien in Freiburg.