University Pearl of the Month July 2023 goes to the project "In-service qualification of teachers"

Growing absenteeism, full classrooms and a lack of young teachers have characterized the German school landscape for more than a decade. Saxony has been countering this with the academic training of teachers since 2017. The alternative approach to teacher training with the part-time teacher qualification programme (BQL) enables newcomers to the profession in particular to complete the necessary stages of professionalization in parallel to everyday school life. For this, the BQL program of the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (ZLSB) at TU Dresden received the University Pearl of the Month for July 2023. This year, the monthly awards of the German Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft e.V. are under the motto: "Rethinking Teacher Education".

BQL makes an innovative and high-quality contribution to the academic training of lateral entrants. With a success rate of more than 80%, around 800 teachers have completed the program to date. "Due to the massive shortage of teachers, we need many more of these innovative solutions. The Saxon approach shows how teacher training can be designed in a new and future-oriented way," said the Stifterverband jury when awarding the July University Pearl of the Month to the Dresden stakeholders.
The BQL program enables further education participants to gain qualifications at the TU on two days a week while working at school. On the other three days, they teach at schools in the Free State of Saxony. The innovative combination of school practice and academic study in real time promotes the linking of school activities with academic and didactic knowledge.

© ZLSB

The key success factors of the continuing education program are specifically designed curricula that are based on modules of the undergraduate teaching degree and at the same time tailored to the knowledge and skills of teachers in continuing education. This allows current school challenges to be reflected on a theoretical basis and practical solutions to be adapted. The design of digital learning scenarios in addition to established learning formats (such as lectures and face-to-face seminars) has proven to be an effective tool in order to meet the specific needs of the learning group. This makes training more flexible, reduces travel distances and makes it more family-friendly. At the same time, this framework also makes an active contribution to expanding the media and digitalization skills of the participating teachers. The BQL programme also has a large number of its own structures, including a learning workshop and a media lab, as well as numerous professionally relevant additional offerings in the areas of digitalization and inclusion. In addition, comprehensive scientific monitoring of the program not only ensures the quality of the training, but also provides well-founded results on the (educational) biographies, learning requirements and professional development of lateral entrants in Saxony. The alternative path to professionalization through the BQL programme is therefore a valuable and sustainable contribution to solving the shortage of teachers.

Contact: Dr. Peggy Germer