More than "Tschakka, we can do it!"

It is the largest conference for teachers in the region: the Pedagogical Week at the University of Oldenburg. It's back again in September, but this year many things are different. In this interview, Academic Director Julia Michaelis explains what this means. QUESTION: The Pedagogical Week can look back on more than 30 years of tradition. What makes it so successful? MICHAELIS: It is unique in its profile because it combines science and school practice like no other event in this country. For our researchers, it is a very important transfer tool for reaching teachers in the north-west. The broad networking and co-operation with educational establishments and institutions offers a constructive framework for exchange and discourse on theory-practice relationships for teaching and learning across all three phases of teacher training. Overall, the Pedagogical Week is an important image factor for our university. Teacher training plays a central role in research and development as well as in building the profile of the entire university. QUESTION: Last year, the Teacher Training Week was cancelled. How did that come about? MICHAELIS: After the 31st conference event in September 2014, we took the time to further develop the format. Of course, a lot has changed in a good 30 years. The needs of schools are different today than they were in the 80s or 90s, for example, and the opportunities for teachers to take time off have also changed. In the past, many teachers took part throughout the week. Today, they can only take part for one or two days due to the new leave of absence practice in schools. As schools are releasing fewer teachers overall to safeguard lessons, the participants also have a greater multiplier function within the teaching staff. Furthermore, in a comprehensive internal analysis, we identified a need for optimisation and development in terms of programme planning and conference preparation; for example, the tools for conference planning and administration were no longer appropriate for today's requirements. We therefore asked ourselves how we could deal with these changes and development needs so that we could maintain the Pedagogical Week in the long term and position it in terms of quality. QUESTION: What conclusions have you drawn? MICHAELIS: First of all, we analysed exactly where the strengths and weaknesses of the Pedagogical Week lie, what we want to maintain and what things we should change. To do this, we involved various experts at a very early stage - from within the university, but also from outside. We also involved a particularly large number of people in the specific programme design this time. On the one hand, these were academics from our university, who provided insights into their research and development work, and on the other, representatives from schools and teacher training centres in order to be as close as possible to the actual needs of teachers. The broad and early involvement of experts in the planning process should also be established as a quality element in subsequent years. Overall, over the past year and a half, we have mastered a major discovery, analysis and conceptual process that has demanded a great deal of time and investment from us. But it was really worth it: we were able to create a modern, attractive teacher training programme that takes into account the strengths and potential of our location. QUESTION: What does this new programme look like? MICHAELIS: Firstly, we have expanded our target group. Primary schools and special schools made up a particularly large proportion of participants. In future, we would like to focus more on the topics and needs of all types of schools, i.e. also be more attractive for lower and upper secondary schools and vocational schools. To this end, we offer, for example, specialist excursions on special topics at the university or its affiliated institutes and indicate the school-specific orientation of the individual offers directly in the programme. Overall, we are focussing on quality rather than quantity - and on formats that encourage active engagement with the content. Accordingly, there are fewer lectures, but more opportunities for active dialogue, such as discussion forums, specialist excursions, visits to extracurricular learning locations and "World Cafés" - a special workshop format for constructive discussions. In addition, our teaching and learning materials exhibition is more specifically tailored and remains freely accessible. In addition, there is a new conference structure: we have switched to a specialist conference principle, which means that each of the three days is dedicated to a key topic - so participants who can only take one or two days off can also devote themselves to a topic in depth. QUESTION: Is there no longer an overarching conference theme? MICHAELIS: Yes, of course. This year, the entire Pedagogical Week is being organised under the motto: "Motivation on the trail". Now, you might think that the topic of motivation is a bit hackneyed for educators. However, we had a wide-ranging discussion about how to organise a modern conference on the subject and quickly realised that it can't just be about dogma, along the lines of "Be motivated!" or "Tchakka, we can do it". Instead, we look at the topic from different perspectives, which are reflected in the individual days: What exactly is motivation and what does it do? How do you motivate yourself and others? Which areas of activity are particularly in the focus of schools and lessons from a motivational point of view? Which motivating and demotivating conditions have an influence? The programme includes critical discussions as well as concrete offers for reflection and support. On the first day, the focus will be on pupils, the second day will be dedicated to the motivation of teachers and on the third day we will look at diversity in schools and how it can be addressed in a motivating way. Each specialist day begins with a joint keynote speech for which we have been able to bring in experts on specific topics. Afterwards, participants can choose from a wide range of programmes for in-depth discussion. Discussion is always very important to us, which is why we have created a completely new format to kick things off. QUESTION: That sounds exciting... MICHAELIS: It is. In future, the Pedagogical Week will start with a public kick-off event on Monday afternoon, which is intended to appeal not only to teachers, but also to the general public. There will be a prominent public lecture followed by a get-together. Both are intended to strengthen networking in the educational landscape and raise awareness among the general public. We have been able to secure Prof Dr Dr Gerhard Roth from Bremen for the lecture. He is a neurobiologist and philosopher and, under the title "The importance of motivation for learning success", takes a completely different look at the topic: he focusses on cognitive performance, the psyche, learning and memory formation. We did this quite deliberately in order to provide a framework for the content of all three main topics of the conference. I can imagine that he will also present theses that can be discussed. We see him as an important driving force behind the entire event. QUESTION: Are there any other highlights? MICHAELIS: Yes, many. For example, there is the discussion forum with education journalist Armin Himmelrath, who questions the usefulness of homework. We also offer various workshops, for example we show how to create short explanatory videos with a tablet or how to quickly visualise a thought using sketchnotes. We also present extracurricular learning centres: On the one hand, we present regional places of learning such as the German Emigration Centre Bremerhaven, the Esterwegen Memorial, the centre for nature + technology and many more. On the other hand, we offer excursions to the university student laboratories, where teachers can explore the learning opportunities themselves and find out how they can prepare and follow up their class's visit so that it has a lasting motivational and learning effect. So it's not a conference with a lot of theory, but with a high degree of activation that also considers the transfer to the classroom. Overall, we have fewer events than before, but they are of a very high quality. In order to ensure this quality, we will only organise a Pedagogical Week every two years in future.

The 32nd Pedagogical Week "Motivation on the Trail" will take place from 26 to 29 September at the University (Lecture Centre A14). The event is organised by the university's Didactic Centre in co-operation with the Oldenburg Training Centre. Up to 1000 teachers and education experts from the Weser-Ems region are expected to attend. The opening event on Monday, 26 September, from 4 p.m. is open to the public and free of charge. Further information and registration at www.uni-oldenburg.de/pw2016