Strengthening teachers' digital skills
15th November 2022 — High-quality initial and continuing teacher training in digital skills is essential for an agile, resilient and sustainable education system. To achieve this, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in cooperation with the Länder, has created the research, innovation and transfer programme Competence Centres for Digital and Digitally Supported Teaching in Schools and Further Education. The aim is to systematically support teachers with practice-oriented further training so that they can use the opportunities digitalisation offers and apply digital tools in the classroom in a technically, didactically and pedagogically sensible way. The programme is funded by the European Union within the framework of the German Reconstruction and Resilience Plan (DARP).
Building on the experiences of the Quality Initiative for Teacher Education of the Federal Government and the Länder, whose implementation was also the responsibility of DLR Projektträger, funding is being provided for networks that link the various actors in teacher education and develop high-quality in-service training for active teachers. The actors involved include, for example, universities, non-university research institutions, study seminars, state educational institutes and state media institutes.
First competence centres to start in April 2023
A total of four centres of excellence for digital and digitally supported learning are being established on different topics. In addition to the first centre for STEM subjects, three other centres of excellence will focus on languages, social and economic sciences, music and creative subjects and sport, as well as digital school development, digital communication and cooperation formats and further training for school administrators. The first competence centres will start operating in April 2023. "They are a big step towards improving digital education in Germany. We at DLR Projektträger are pleased to contribute to the successful operation of the competence centres with our specialist knowledge and expertise in project funding," explains Dr Alexander Höse, who heads the Higher Education Structures / Science and Higher Education Research department. In addition, funding is being provided for an overarching networking and transfer office, which is to begin its work in February 2023. In cooperation with DLR Projektträger, it will ensure that the developments and results of the competence centres benefit the teacher training institutions and thus, ultimately, the teaching staff.
DLR Projektträger has been a partner from the very beginning
To implement the programme, the DLR Projektträger interdisciplinary teams pool their expertise. in order to optimally address the very heterogeneous landscape of actors, experts from the departments of Higher Education Structures, Science and Higher Education Research, and Quality in Schools and Higher Education work together. They support the BMBF in all phases of project funding and supervise all activities of the research projects throughout their entire duration. For example, DLR Projektträger prepares funding announcements, organises meetings of experts, designs and implements selection procedures and supports the BMBF's committee work. In addition, it takes on technical activities for the BMBF in the evaluation of the programme as well as editorial tasks, such as the coordination and creation of contributions for flyers, brochures and the website.
DLR Projektträger already has many years of experience in the field of teacher training: since 2014, it has been implementing the Federal-Länder programme Quality Offensive Teacher Training for the BMBF (in association?). The experts at DLR Projektträger advise those interested in funding and applicants in all phases of the programme and implement the project funding. In addition, DLR Projektträger promotes exchange between the projects and all teacher training institutions in Germany through intensive multimedia public relations work and events accompanying the programme.
The competence centres are a big step towards improving digital education in Germany. We at DLR Projektträger are pleased to be able to contribute to the successful operation of the competence centres with our specialist knowledge and expertise in project funding.
