TUD-Sylber: Synergetic Teacher Education within a Framework of Excellence

The goal of the project “Synergetic Teacher Education” (TUD-Sylber) was to create an improved network for the diverse actors involved in teacher education at TU Dresden as well as in its immediate environment, and to coordinate their actions in such a way that sustainable progress in the education of prospective teachers is made. The TUD-Sylber package of measures united Chairs from seven Faculties with the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research and examined both the institutional structures of teacher education at TU Dresden as well as the contents and forms of teaching in the degree programs. In this way, the aim was to develop further in a sustainable manner student support and study organization. The same aim applied to strengthening the relation to profession and research within university teaching and to increasing the cross-phase coherence of teacher education. TUD-Sylber was dedicated to the three intertwined focal points of organizational development, quality improvement and regional networking.

As part of the Federal and State Governments’ Quality Initiative in Teacher Education, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (German abbreviation: BMBF) supported the institutional and content-related development of teacher education. TU Dresden has been participating in the Quality Offensive Teacher Education in both funding phases with the packages of measures “Synergetic Teacher Education” (TUD-Sylber and TUD-Sylber²) between 2016 and 2023.  In the second fundign phase, the partner project “Synergetic Teacher Education for Teaching at Vocational Schools” (TUD-Sylber BBS) had additionally focused on the specific challenges for this teacher training degree program.

The TUD-Sylber package of measures

During its first funding phase from 2016 to 2019, in a total of 16 individual projects, TUD-Sylber focused on the research-based conception and piloting of innovative teaching-learning formats, in addition to setting up new cross-sectional structures for teacher education. In the second funding phase from 2019 to 2023, eight subprojects – spanning subjects and types of school – aimed to consolidate and stabilize proven concepts across the breadth of teacher education.
The 8 subprojects of the TUD-Sylber² package of measures were the responsibility of 9 Chairs from 7 Faculties and aim to attract further participants in teacher education at TU Dresden as well as in the second and third phases to join forces towards achieving greater coherence in teacher education.

Main area organizational development
Subproject 1: Graduate Forum Teacher Education
Subproject 2: Freedom from overlap and student communication
Subproject 3: Quality assurance in teacher training degree programs

Main area quality improvement
Subproject 4: Integrative teacher education as a responsibility of specialist sciences, didactics of individual subjects and educational sciences
Subproject 5: Dealing with heterogeneity as a responsibility of all phases of teacher education
Subproject 6: Digitization as a cross-sectional issue for teacher education

Main area regional networking
Subproject 7: Liaison Office Teacher Education to strengthen rural areas
Subproject 8: Out-of-school places of learning in the learning landscape of Saxony

The Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (German abbreviation: ZLSB) coordinated the project together with a cross-faculty steering group.

Project Management
Managing Director of the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (German abbreviation: ZLSB)

Steering Group
Prof. Nadine Bergner, Faculty of Computer Science
Prof. Anja Besand, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science
Prof. Axel Gehrmann, Faculty of Education
Prof. Anke Langner, Faculty of Education
Prof. Manuela Niethammer, Faculty of Education
Prof. Gesche, School of Science
Jun. Prof. Nicole Raschke, Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Prof. Dorothee Wieser, Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies

Project Coordination
Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (German abbreviation: ZLSB):
Rolf Puderbach
Séverine Friedrich

Funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)