Research Project V: DAAD-Project Service-Learning-Program

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - SLAM! - was the starting signal for the seven creative and informative contributions presented at the UP-Network-Slam 2023. True to the motto "Presentations can also be done differently!", the participants creatively presented their DAAD research projects, which are carried out under the umbrella of the Centre for Teacher Training and Educational Research (ZeLB) at the University of Potsdam. All projects are linked by the vision of an interdisciplinary, transnational network with partner institutions that include universities, German schools abroad and other educational institutions. The Chair of German Didactics in an Inclusive Context also participated in this innovative exchange format as part of their "Research Project V: DAAD Project Service-Learning Offer".

With a time limit of five minutes, Prof. Dr. Winnie-Karen Giera and Lucas Deutzmann presented the concept as well as the status of the service-learning project so far with the help of a sketch that Winnie-Karen Giera drew in line with Lucas Deutzmann's explanations during these five minutes (see also the video above). The two slammer also provided facts and figures about the project: In four seminar cycles since WiSe 2021/22, 66 students designed a total of 33 service-learning offers tailored to the learning groups via Zoom at four German schools abroad in Jakarta (Indonesia), São Paolo (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia) and Cairo (Egypt) and carried them out (as of SoSe 2023).

Not only the Chair of German Didactics in an Inclusive Context participated in the UP Network Slam, but also the departments of Educational Sciences, Chemistry, English, French, Geography, Music, Spanish and Sport. More information on these sub-projects can be found on the website "UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education" of the ZeLB (https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/zelb/forschung-und-entwicklung/daad-projekt). The event was framed by an informal exchange at the end of the contributions, in which individual aspects, questions and comments were discussed lively and with interest even beyond the time limit of the presentation.

You can find out more about the DAAD project Service-Learning Offer on this page below. You can also find more information about our international cooperations here. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments (see contact box below)!

General Project

As a teacher, it is significantly to recognize and take into account students' different language levels and competences within increasingly heterogeneous learning groups. Thus, it is possible to support subject-related learning processes appropriately. According to the point-out oft the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the cantons in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) in their publication "Strengthening educational language competencies in German" 2019, the promotion of educational language competencies is a cross-sectional task for all subjects. Teacher training should therefore focus on a language-sensitive design of lessons.

The project combines two demand-oriented seminars, which are linked to different phases in the teacher training program:

• a seminar on language-sensitive subject teaching as part of the practical semester of the Master's degree in teaching (abroad)
• a digital service-learning-program for language education and promotion - by teacher students and for students of the German schools abroad cooperating with the ZeLB. 

Current Status of the Project

Two seminars from the “DaF/DaZ” area and inclusive German didactics have been cooperating from winter term 2021/22 onwards. While one seminar tends to prioritize language education, the other seminar emphasizes language support - but both seminars deal with the processes of reading, speaking, writing, presenting, and listening. This seminar project aims to support the students in the language-systematic as well as the language-pragmatic fields of German in all subjects. Teaching materials for the project will be collected digitally and made available to the participating schools. In addition, there will be a workshop for interested teachers, which will be tailored to the teachers` needs after close consultation. Teaching materials that will be developed during the process of the project will be collected and made digitally available to participating schools.

A student-teacher tandem will provide interested students with a service-learning-offer in the area of language support via Zoom. This can be, for example, support in reading comprehension, writing, teaching grammar/orthography, or creating presentations on individual subjects. The learning offers will be adapted to the language competences which are determined in the framework curriculum for the individual grades. The support can be used once or several times over a shorter period as a crash course, after consultation between teachers and parents. The learning time is agreed upon an individual basis and should be oriented towards the needs and interests of the schools and parents.

Whom will be aimed for this offer?

The offer is aimed at students of collabarated German schools abroad (secondary education).