Research Project IV: DAAD-Project Service-Learning-Program
UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education 2.0
Highlights from the visit to Ghana in February 2026 by Prof. Winnie-Karen Giera and Karen Kölling
General Plan
In the second funding phase (2025–2029), the “UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education 2.0” project aims to strengthen international and interdisciplinary teacher education at the University of Potsdam. The focus is on expanding sustainable university partnerships, developing joint teaching formats, and promoting intercultural learning opportunities. The initiatives include student and faculty mobility, digital teaching formats, and continuing education programs on diversity and future skills.
Based on these overarching measures, various subprojects are emerging that translate the concepts into concrete teaching and learning formats. One of these subprojects is situated in the field of inclusive German language pedagogy and deals with language education and promotion in a multilingual/inclusive context (German language pedagogy in an inclusive context and pedagogy of German as a Foreign Language/German as a Second Language).
The subproject “Service Learning – Clear the Stage!” combines theater education methods with concrete reading promotion. It pursues two closely interlinked goals: improving the reading skills of students aged 10 to 14 and strengthening social interaction within inclusive learning groups.
Training for teacher education students at the University of Potsdam and the University of Education, Winneba (Ghana) in the areas of reading research, theater pedagogy, and theatrical production is part of the program. The developed content is made available on the digital learning platform OpenUP. Theater scripts are used to promote reading fluency and comprehension. This involves adapting roles or casting them with two actors, employing reading coaches and performing scenes. The Potsdam Inclusive Teaching Model forms the pedagogical foundation and is adapted for international contexts. The plays address the topics of exclusion and discrimination in schools and encourage students to seek solutions for more inclusion. University students are supported through online lectures, an international lecture series and a theater workshop. During the practical phase, they receive weekly online coaching.
Current status of the project
Project Trip to Ghana (February 2026)
In February 2026, Prof. Dr. Winnie-Karen Giera and Karen Kölling from the University of Potsdam traveled to the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), to strengthen existing collaborations and establish new partnerships.
Key discussion partners included representatives of the university administration, such as Vice-Chancellor Stephen Jobson Mitchual and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof. Esther Yeboah Danso-Wired, as well as several faculties, including Foreign Language Education (Faculty of Foreign Languages Education (FFLE)), Creative Arts (School of Creative Arts), and Theater Studies (Department of Theatre Arts). Together with the Centre for International Programmes, prospects for joint mobility programs and publications were discussed. In the Department of Special Education, opportunities for joint supervision of doctoral and postdoctoral projects in the field of special education were explored.
For the first time, discussions were held with the Institute of Education at the University of Cape Coast. The trip concluded with a visit to the German International School Accra (GISA). As part of the school’s 60th-anniversary celebrations, a commemorative speech was delivered there, and existing ties with local schools were further strengthened.
Educational and professional development activities conducted:
During the visit, various courses and workshops took place, including:
- A guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Giera as part of the Department of Theatre Arts’ “Launch of Departmental Theatre Colloquium Series” on the topic of drama education approaches in education.
- Courses in German as a Foreign Language (DaF) classes (levels A1 to B1) covering research methods, inclusion, reading literacy, and body-based learning, supplemented by practical exercises using texts on bullying.
- A theater education seminar for art, music, and theater students on embodied learning and drama-based teaching methods.
- A professional development workshop for teachers on pronunciation training using body-based, drama-based methods in German as a Foreign Language (DaF) and German as a Second Language (DaZ) instruction.
-A course on qualitative and quantitative research as well as Design-Based Research (DBR) for doctoral and master’s students.
Further details can be found in the report under ‘International Cooperation’.
Who is the programme aimed at?
This subproject is aimed at several groups and combines university teaching, school practice and international cooperation:
-Pre- service teachers at the University of Potsdam and the University of Education, Winneba receive a theoretical and practical foundation in reading research, theater education, and theatrical production. They gain the necessary qualifications through online lectures, an international lecture series and a theater workshop. During the practical phase, implementation is supported by weekly online coaching.
-Students aged 10–14 in inclusive learning settings in Germany and Ghana benefit directly from the developed teaching formats, which promote reading fluency, reading comprehension and social participation in equal measure.
-Teachers and school administrators gain insight into theater-based teaching methods and language-sensitive subject instruction through professional development opportunities.
-Researchers and doctoral candidates from both partner universities benefit from joint research formats, supervision structures and exchanges on methods such as design-based research.
UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education 1.0
General plan
As a teacher, it is important to recognise and take into account the different language levels within increasingly heterogeneous learning groups. This makes it possible to support subject-specific learning processes appropriately. As the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs made clear in its 2019 publication ‘Strengthening educational language skills in the German language’, the promotion of educational language skills should be seen as a cross-cutting task for all subjects. Teacher training should therefore focus on the language-sensitive design of subject lessons.
The project combines two needs-orientated study programmes that tie in with different phases of teacher training:
- a digital service-learning programme for language education and support by students for pupils at German schools abroad (Bachelor) that cooperate with the ZeLB.
- A seminar programme on language-sensitive subject teaching as part of the practical semester of the Master's teaching degree (abroad)
Current status of the project
Between the winter semester 2021/22 and the winter semester 2023/24, two seminars from the DaF/DaZ area and from inclusive German didactics cooperated in a total of six cycles. While one seminar prioritised language education, the other seminar emphasised language development. However, both seminars focussed on the processes of reading, speaking, writing, presenting and listening. The aim of this seminar project is to support pupils in the linguistic-systematic and linguistic-pragmatic field of German in all subjects. Teaching materials from the project have been collected digitally and are available to participating schools and all other interested parties as open source materials on the freely accessible university Moodle platform Open.UP. If there is sufficient interest, it is also possible to offer a workshop for teachers in which the teaching materials used are also reflected upon, following close consultation with the teachers and an assessment of their needs.
A student tandem offered interested pupils or learning groups a service-learning programme in the area of language education and support via Zoom. Examples include support services for reading comprehension, writing texts, stimulating oral classroom interactions, teaching grammar/orthography or creating presentations in the individual subjects. The curricular language competences in the individual year groups were kept in mind. This support could be provided in consultation with teachers and parents. This support could be used once or several times over a shorter period as a power course after consultation between teachers and parents. The learning time was agreed individually and should be based on the needs and interests of the schools and parents/guardians.
The project has currently been on hiatus since the summer semester 2024, but the cooperation with German schools abroad in Colombia, Indonesia, Egypt and Brazil will continue in the long term and will also be maintained in other projects of the department. Many teaching materials from previous cycles can be found on Open.UP: https://openup.uni-potsdam.de/course/view.php?id=251.
At the centre of this database are 31 different student projects from the subjects of German (speech training, creative writing, argumentation and debating, text type-specific writing training, grammar), history, natural sciences and interdisciplinary products. There are also links to numerous other diagnostic and digital learning and teaching tools that were used during the service-learning programmes. Reflections on the programmes are available for selected projects.
Who is the programme aimed at?
The programme is aimed at students at cooperating German schools abroad at secondary level.
Präsentation of Service-Learning-Program at UP-Network-Slam 2023
Video: The Service-Learning-Program explained and visualised in 5 minutes (in german) ;)
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Poster of UP Network-Slam 2023. -
Schedule of UP-Network-Slam 2023. -
Circle of service-learning offer (drawn in the network slam by Winnie-Karen-Giera).
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)!
Written feedback from the participants
- Great concept with great added value!
- Top visualization!
- Funny that a digital offer was presented in analog.
- Perfectly matched between drawing and explanation.
- Very clearly and understandably presented!
- Beautiful, creative packaging!
- Felt like a workshop.
- Great opportunity for students to get hands-on experience.
- Great skills, love Winnie!
- The lecture and sketchnotes were very impressive!
Contact
Junior professorship for German didactics in an inclusive context/focus on language and communication (secondary level I)
Prof. Dr. Winnie-Karen Giera
Contact
Head of the department DaF/DaZ-Didactics
Dr. Torsten Andreas
