Six courses that received particularly high ratings have been awarded this year’s Teaching Prize – one from each School. Here is an overview of the seminars and lectures that have been recognised.
What makes a good course? This is the focus at the University of Oldenburg, particularly in mid-November, when the Teaching Award is presented. This year, the lecturers of six courses from all Schools can look forward to receiving the award, each worth 1,000 euros: The award recipients were social scientist Prof. Dr Jannika Mattes, sustainability researchers Dr Sophie Berg and Dr Hendrik Wolter, art historian Prof. Dr Friederike Nastold, history education specialist Pia Schiffer, chemist Dr Lars Mohrhusen and medical scientist Dr Maya Sophie de Wilde. Their seminars and lectures received particularly high ratings from students in the so-called course evaluation. However varied the topics may have been, in all the courses the students praised the practical relevance, good organisation, a pleasant learning atmosphere and the fact that there was scope for discussion and individual questions.
An overview of the courses:
Individual support throughout the research process
In the second and third semesters of the English-taught Master’s programme in ‘Social Sciences’, students are required to complete a term paper – a small research project of their own, almost the same scope as a Bachelor’s thesis. This proved a challenge for many of the participants: “Our student body is very international and, as a result, some have learnt to conduct academic work in very different ways,” reports Prof. Dr Jannika Mattes. In the summer semester of 2025, the social scientist ran the ‘Project Coaching’ seminar, in which she provided individual support to second-semester students as they prepared their research projects. Mattes refreshed the students’ knowledge of the basics of academic work, gave tips on writing and citing sources, and supported the students, for example, in structuring their literature review or formulating a specific research question – depending on where they were struggling. “I was, so to speak, their sparring partner for the preparation of the projects,” she explains. The students are now in their third semester and are receiving further support from lecturers specialising in their respective subject areas.
The students gained a great deal from the session: they praised the fact that there was plenty of scope for questions and comments, that they were encouraged to engage in critical reflection, and that they received lots of useful tips – for example, on how to collect data, manage their time or structure an academic article.
- Course: Project Coaching
- Lecturer: Prof. Dr Jannika Mattes
- Degree programme: Master’s in Social Sciences
- School I - School of Educational and Social Sciences
Thinking about sustainability through play
Anyone whose work involves issues such as climate policy, social justice or sustainability often has to deal with conflicts, contradictions and tensions. To help students on degree programmes with a focus on sustainability understand how to navigate such dilemmas, Dr Sophie Berg and Dr Hendrik Wolter from the Ecological Economics research group took an unconventional approach in the summer semester of 2025 – game-based learning.
In their course ‘Decisions under Uncertainty: Experiencing Sustainability Dilemmas through Play’, participants tried out a total of six different games. For example, in the board game ‘Catan – Energy’, they set up an island’s energy supply; in the strategy game ‘Fate of the World’, they steered the warming planet through the next 200 years; and in the role-playing game ‘Gifts of Culture’, they attempted to balance the interests of different groups in order to prevent a flood disaster. The games raise awareness not only of conflicts of values and interests, but also of emotions such as greed, anger, shame or peer pressure. “We refer to this as ‘serious gaming’. The main aim is to gain an understanding of other perspectives and the behaviour of other people,” explains Sophie Berg.
Sessions in which the participants played the games alternated with sessions in which they reflected on and discussed their experiences using guiding questions. “Through repeated rounds of play and reflection, the students have learnt not only to recognise and discuss sustainability dilemmas, but also to view them in a broader context, to understand their own role within them, and to consider how they might deal with such dilemmas in their future careers,” explains Wolter.
He and Berg first offered the course in 2023. The unusual teaching approach continues to delight the students: in their evaluation comments, they praised the “great module”, the “active exchange” and the “really cool games”. The seminar taught soft skills such as teamwork, the ability for co-operation and an understanding of other perspectives – whilst being great fun.
- Course: Decision-making under uncertainty: experiencing sustainability dilemmas through play
- Lecturers: Dr Sophie Berg and Dr Hendrik Wolter
- Degree programmes: Master’s in Sustainability Economics and Management, Business Administration, Water and Coastal Management, Social Sciences
- School II – Computing Science, Economics and Law
Excursion to the Biennale
Every two years, Venice hosts the Biennale, one of the most important international exhibitions of contemporary art. The theme for 2024 is ‘Foreigners Everywhere’. “The artworks on display there explore themes such as being a stranger, origin, identities and postcolonial issues, amongst other things,” reports Prof. Dr Friederike Nastold. Her seminar on the Biennale, entitled “Foreigners Everywhere – Collective (Working) Forms in Art”, held during the 2024/25 winter semester, focused not only on the history of the Biennale and selected works of art. During an excursion to Venice, seminar participants also had the opportunity to deepen their engagement with the exhibits and the exhibition’s theme. “For me, it’s important to combine theory and practice,” emphasises Nastold. In her view, field trips offer a learning space “that expands on the discussions in the seminar room and opens up yet further avenues for reflection”. This was exactly what went down well with the students: participants praised the “open, collaborative discussions” and “respectful encounters on equal terms”, but in particular the “periods of reflection, discussions and conversations during the excursion.”
- Event: Foreigners everywhere – Collective (working) forms in art
- Lecturer: Prof. Dr Friederike Nastold
- Degree programme: Double-subject Bachelor’s in German Studies, Art and Media
- School III - School of Linguistics and Cultural Studies
Learning to teach and conduct research at the same time
The ‘Research and Development Placement’ is an integral part of the Master of Education programme for teaching at grammar schools in Oldenburg. In this module, students are expected to combine teaching practice with research-based learning. During their Master’s programme, they usually spend seven weeks at a school. On the one hand, they gain practical teaching experience through the subject-specific placement. The Research and Development Placement, on the other hand, is designed to enable them to carry out an empirical study at the school. “In the subject of history, we focus on ensuring that students also link their empirical research project to practical teaching experience,” explains Pia Schiffer, a research assistant in the Department of History Didactics.
During the 2024/25 winter semester, Schiffer led a seminar in which she prepared students for their school placement, supported them throughout, and subsequently reflected on and evaluated their experiences together with them. “What makes this seminar special is its structure: You don’t just have one seminar session a week for 14 weeks; instead, you can support the students over a longer period as they go through their learning and research process,” she emphasises. Schiffer saw her role as a lecturer as supporting the trainee teachers in their project, whilst also giving them the necessary freedom to carry it out.
To enable the students to gradually develop their research questions, Schiffer incorporated several joint brainstorming sessions into the seminar, encouraged mutual feedback and offered all participants an individual consultation. The positive evaluation results reinforce the educationalist’s confidence in her approach, as she says: “Given the complex task the students faced, I was delighted that they found the seminar useful for themselves and their future professional practice, and that they were able to take away new insights.”
- Course: Research and Development Placement in History
- Lecturer: Pia Schiffer
- Degree programme: Master of Education – Secondary School Teaching
- School IV - School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Lecture with bonus programme
Plenty of discussion and interaction – that was the hallmark of the lecture ‘Solid gas interfaces in theory and application’. In the session, chemist Dr Lars Mohrhusen explored technologies that enable the study of interactions between solids and gases. Such processes are relevant in fields such as catalysis, photocatalysis and sensor technology. During the session, he explained which processes take place at the interface, which methods can be used to analyse surfaces at the atomic level, and where the limitations of these methods lie. In addition, he took the students on a tour of various on-site laboratories. “We looked at how state-of-the-art methods are applied in practice and the current research questions they are being used to address,” reports Mohrhusen, who heads a junior research group at the Institute of Chemistry funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. During the laboratory visits, the students also learnt about current research topics being pursued by individual research groups in Oldenburg and were able to make contacts, for example to find a place to undertake their Master’s thesis. Accordingly, the students praised, for example, “the excellent link between theoretical foundations and current research debates” and the “practical examples”. The event sparked their interest and made them keen to undertake further internships. The participants’ only advice: “Keep up the good work!”
- Event: Solid gas interfaces in theory and application – Lecture
- Lecturer: Dr Lars Mohrhusen
- Degreeprogramme: Master’s in Chemistry
- School V - School of Mathematics and Science
Practical relevance in medical studies
Obstetrics, breast diseases, gynaecological tumours, endometriosis and case-based teaching: gynaecology is a diverse field. “In the third year of medical studies, the subject of gynaecology is ever-present,” reports Dr Maya Sophie de Wilde, research assistant at School V - School of Medicine and Health Sciences and a doctor undergoing further education at the University Department of Gynaecology at Pius Hospital in Oldenburg. All students learn the basics of gynaecology during this stage of their studies. De Wilde is involved as a lecturer in various lectures, seminars and internships in this field. She received top marks in the course evaluation for her seminar ‘Gynaecology and Obstetrics’. The course focuses on acquiring a basic understanding of gynaecological examination techniques. “The methods are first demonstrated, after which participants can apply what they have learnt themselves using realistic models,” reports the doctor. This practical approach was well received by the students.
- Course: Gynaecology and Obstetrics (seminar)
- Lecturer: Dr Maya Sophie de Wilde
- Degreeprogramme: Medicine
- School V - School of Medicine and Health Sciences
The University of Oldenburg has been recognising outstanding achievements by university lecturers since 1998. The ‘Teaching Award 2024/25’ is sponsored by the University Society of Oldenburg e. V.
