Award winners test and implement innovative concepts
In order to support the commitment of teaching staff and make the quality of teaching at Paderborn University visible, the university management calls for proposals for the annual award for innovation and quality improvement in teaching. The teaching prize for young academics is also awarded annually by the Executive Board and recognises teaching concepts and methods of an outstanding and exemplary nature. This year's winners have now been announced.
Award for innovation and quality improvement in teaching
Three projects have been honoured with the award for innovation and quality improvement in teaching. Prof Dr Dennis Kundisch and Prof Dr Oliver Müller receive the award for the project "Student AI skills in economics". The project creates an innovative additional programme that is aimed in particular at Bachelor's students in the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics in their first year of study. The aim is to create basic skills for a sensible, systematic and ethical approach to generative artificial intelligence (GenKI).
Dr Carolin Waltert, Dr Nicole Satzinger and Prof. Dr Miriam Kehne were awarded the prize for the project "Education through movement - changing teaching conditions to shape innovations in teaching". The overarching aim is to implement physical movement more strongly in university teaching and to break up traditional teaching-learning situations. Specifically, the focus is on the participatory design of a movement-orientated "pilot seminar room".
Dr Max Hoffmann andProf. Dr Lena Wessel also received a funding award for their project "ProM@IK-KI - Professionalisation of mathematics teacher training students in the field of computer science skills through the use of AI". They are focusing on the mathematics-specific digital expertise of future maths teachers and the requirement that they must be able to select, adapt or create digital learning environments in a reflective manner. A total of four learning arrangements are to be developed.
Teaching award for young academics
Maike Althaus and Lea Biere receive the teaching award for the seminar "AI and Conversational Agents: an interdisciplinary practical project" and the project seminar "Conversational Agents: Information Systems and Sociology in dialogue". Students were able to work together across faculties in this interdisciplinary, cooperative project. The business informatics students deepened their knowledge in the development of AI systems, while the cultural studies students learnt how to prepare and critically evaluate scientific content for technical applications.
Dr Yvonne Webersen from the didactics of physics and Dr Pascal Pollmeier from the didactics of chemistry also received an award for the interdisciplinary course "From the greenhouse effect to fuel cells: tomorrow's energy supply". The seminar with experimental and practical components was designed for primary school students in the subject area of general studies and offered a learning opportunity to deal with the "energy supply of tomorrow". The scientific foundations of various technologies were developed from the perspectives of physics and chemistry.
The teaching prize was also awarded to Jonas Spieker for the seminar "'What should we dream about? Music in political movements and struggles - a podcast seminar in the summer semester 2025". Students from Paderborn University and the Detmold University of Music developed a podcast series on the complex relationship between music and political activism. The seminar participants learnt all the necessary basics for the realisation of a podcast episode - from audio production and journalistic research to interview techniques and dramaturgical design.
"With the award for innovation and quality improvement in teaching and the teaching award for young academics, we are specifically focussing on promoting and recognising excellent teaching. It is important to us to make the commitment of our teaching staff visible and to strengthen a culture of continuous quality development in teaching. This year's award winners impressively demonstrate how innovative and high-quality teaching is lived with commitment and passion at Paderborn University," says Prof Dr Beate Flath, Vice President for Teaching, Studies and Quality Management.
