Overcrowded lecture theatres? Bulimia learning? As much input as possible and the best possible "reproduction competence"? There is another way, as a seminar in the "Research-based learning in focus (FLiF)" project at the University of Oldenburg shows. By Amrei Ochner
Who hasn't experienced this: you're sitting in a crowded seminar and (exceptionally, of course) haven't read the 40 double-page preparatory text. A persistent murmur fills the room as you sink further and further into the chair you've only just managed to get hold of and make yourself comfortable between your email-writing neighbours. It smells of coffee to go from paper cups and the academic quarter is long over when a presentation starts to play in the background.
Bulemielernen- ein bewährtes Prinzip?
After 20 minutes, the questions from the presentation group threaten to become a critical turning point in the scenario, but luckily, as always, fellow student X takes the floor. The coffee is now at the right temperature and because it's clear anyway that the content for the written exam has to be memorised within these two bad weeks at the end of the semester, there's no need to worry. Bulemielernen is a less popular but proven principle of the Bachelor student species, which has learnt one thing above all from the Bologna reform: Namely, to consume knowledge as comfortably as possible - after all, you pay for it.
Our study structure confirms this: as much input as possible and the best possible reproduction skills are the recipe we are given to master our Bachelor's degree programme. But don't we often forget why we are actually studying when we stick to a module plan? The aim of the "Research-based learning in focus" (FLiF) project at the University of Oldenburg is to abandon the tried and tested methods and install a new teaching and learning culture. As "test subjects" of this new concept, we, six prospective religious education students, looked at the topic of "trust" - led by lecturer PD Dr André Munzinger from the Institute of Protestant Theology, in a slightly different way.
Interlocking research and teaching
More specifically, the seminar "Trust - What is it?" was about looking at positions on the topic of trust and working with them independently. Instead of just looking at the religious perspective of the phenomenon, we became experts in a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives that spanned historical, religious and sociological focal points. Based on our own experiences with the abstract object of research, research on background texts became a dynamic, interactive process in which each individual seminar participant was asked to explore a specialism. Over the course of the semester, this resulted in a regular exchange and a continuously expanding picture of the term "trust".
What was special about this seminar was not only the topic, but above all the structure: from the very first session, we created the content of the seminar together based on the lecturer's impulses and thus witnessed the productive interlinking of research and teaching that the university is striving for with the FLiF project.
In particular, the manageable number of participants, but also the continuous exchange of ideas and the reading workload structured by reading weeks contributed to the success of the seminar. This seminar was about skills other than memorising as much input as possible: The students' presentations at the student conference at the end of the semester were not only aimed at reproducing what they had learnt, but above all at linking and using their own knowledge. The ability to critically reflect on one's own and others' views consolidated the acquired knowledge as well as an awareness that research and the real acquisition of knowledge are always processes that require flexibility in thinking.
Acquiring knowledge as a process
The prospective teachers thus not only took away the content-related dimensions of the topic of trust for their later lesson design, but above all the realisation that the teacher must always be aware of the processual nature of learning in order to be a good teacher in the sense of Karl Jaspers, who "[....] is always a good researcher".
"A successful seminar may leave more questions unanswered than it answers," summarises André Munzinger, in whose School IV an interdisciplinary research day is planned for the coming semester. Here, students will present innovative ideas for teaching that they have previously developed in seminars.
Amrei Ochner is studying maths, sport and "Protestant theology and religious education" in her 6th Bachelor's semester
