Understanding teaching and teaching profile - showing your face

Learning and teaching are at the heart of didactics - both in vocational schools and in companies. A central question of didactic thinking is whether teachers see themselves more as artists or technicians: Do teachers allow creativity and individuality to shape their teaching or do they interpret teaching as a systematic-optimized application of teaching methods?

The distinction relates to the assessment of whether teaching is or should be unique and situational or repetitive and uniform. The "art of teaching" creates something special, whereas the "technique of teaching" follows reason and focuses on repeatability.

Showing face, being a person when teaching is an expression of our didactic self-image, especially in times of artificial intelligence. Showing face - this is important to us. This is what we wish for ourselves - and for you!

(from the inaugural lecture: Examples - Irritating reminders for didactic thinking. Cologne 2003)

Research at the professorship

The research and evaluation work supervised at the Chair of Vocational and Business Education can be described in three main areas: Further development of Dortmund vocational colleges into a regional vocational training center:

• How can vocational colleges work together in a network and create added value in a region's educational offerings through collaboration? How can strategic vocational college development planning be continued as a municipal design task in the short and medium term?

• Training course management: How can cooperation between teachers in the training course be organized? What forms of cooperation and coordination have been tried and tested, e.g. for annual didactic planning?

• Vocational training in the skilled trades: What contributions does vocational training make to securing skilled workers in the skilled trades? How is good quality in-company training designed in micro and small businesses, how do trainers go about it and what measures and offers from skilled crafts organizations support them?

In my opinion, research is multifaceted and should be geared towards the stakeholders: combine an interest in knowledge with an awareness of interests!