Teacher training in the digital age: free state and federation to fund trend-setting concept from University of Passau

With the concept 'primary.programming: algorithmic thinking and programming in primary school', the University of Passau is taking part in a Germany-wide funding initiative. The aim is to meet didactic and technological challenges. 

The University of Passau is addressing further development in the training of primary school teachers proactively: with its concept 'primary.programming: algorithmic thinking and programming in primary school', the university is taking part in the Germany-wide funding initiative 'Quality Campaign for Teacher Training'. The university presented the concept to Minister of Science Bernd Sibler in Passau today and explained what it entailed: the Chairs of Software Engineering II and the Didactics of Computer Science will be working in the coming three years to prepare trainee primary school teachers to learn and teach programming. The aim is to meet didactic and technological challenges by developing evidence-based seminar components on the one hand, and methods and tools which support trainee teachers in actual tuition on the other. The project looks at all the phases of teacher training.

State-of-the-art training

Minister of Science Bernd Sibler was impressed: "If we can succeed in introducing primary school pupils to algorithmic thinking in a playful way that is suitable for children, we'll be able to arouse curiosity, enthusiasm and interest early on, and thus encourage them to be open-minded as regards computer science and programming. In the future, after all, the importance of these fields will be even greater than it already is today. One of the decisive factors in the success of the tuition is for trainee teachers to become competent and be given practical concepts. The University of Passau is one of the first universities in Bavaria to engage in pioneering work by addressing this important topic, and I am delighted about the work being done here. This is state-of-the-art teacher training! I am convinced that every single cent invested in the Quality Campaign for Teacher Training will pay for itself many times over: for the teachers and their valuable tuition, for the pupils and their sound education, and also for our society, which is in urgent need of clever minds."

The Vice-President of the University of Passau for Studies, Teaching and
Internationalisation, Prof. Dr. Daniela Wawra, added: "This project is an important component in the digitalisation strategy of our university: we want to make some significant contributions to meeting the challenges digitalisation poses to society and the economy. In mathematics, computer science, the natural sciences and technology, for example, a lack of specialists and a degree of aloofness from technology are threatening our innovative strength. This project counters those trends early on."

Up to 696,000 euros for the University of Passau

The University of Passau will be receiving up to 696,000 euros for its project 'primary.programming: algorithmic thinking and programming in primary school'. The funds come from the third round of funding of the Quality Campaign for Teacher Training. That third round provides funding for digitalisation concepts in teacher training, teacher training concepts for vocational training centres and projects that combine the two. The universities in Bayreuth, Regensburg and Würzburg, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have also been successful in the third round of selection. Between now and 2023, furthermore, other projects by the University of Bayreuth, the two Munich universities and the universities in Augsburg, Regensburg, Passau and Bamberg are currently being funded in the Quality Campaign for Teacher Training with seven-figure sums. These universities were already successful in the first and second rounds of selection of the Quality Campaign for Teacher Training. The University of Passau is participating in the funding programme for the third time.

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Prof. Dr. Gordon Fraser (Lehrstuhl für Software Engineering II)
Project period	01.03.2020 - 31.12.2023
Source of funding	BMBF - Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung > BMBF - Bund-Länder-Programm BLP > BMBF - Bund-Länder-Programm BLP - Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung (BLP QL)