A transparent & participative process
The development of the mission statement was broad, open, transparent and participatory. The topics of the mission statement for teaching were raised, discussed and deepened in various formats. Some events were organised centrally (e.g. the kick-off on 15.02.2023), others were organised decentrally on Teaching Day 2023. Anyone who wanted to contribute ideas and expertise to the teaching mission statement was able to get involved in working groups on a focussed and topic-specific basis. Throughout the entire development process, digital formats made it possible to stay informed about the status of the successive development and to contribute one's own perspective. Of course, regular feedback loops were built into the process.
These boards control the process:
The Sounding Board supported the development process of the mission statement for teaching by providing regular feedback.
The mission statement for teaching is a joint task for the entire university. It was therefore jointly formulated in a discursive, participatory and transparent process. An important function in this process was the regular feedback from the relevant areas, relevant commissions/commissioners and status groups in the Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin's academic self-administration committees during the development process. The Sounding Board took on this role in the process.
The tasks of the Sounding Board were
- Examination of the premises
- Feedback on the process (opportunities for participation, transparency...)
- Resonance with the content (identify missing topics/aspects, prioritisation if necessary)
- Consideration of formal aspects (integration/alignment with existing documents)
The Sounding Board for the mission statement for teaching was composed across committees and status qua office/function. Representatives of the Deans of Studies, the Representatives for Severely Disabled Persons, the Commission for Teaching and Studies of the University Senate, the RefRat and the RefRat Lust, the Representative Office for Severely Disabled Persons, the Family Office were therefore invited, Women's Representative, Academic Affairs, Quality Management, Computer and Media Service, the International Department, the Professional School of Education, the IXD Department for Structural Development Planning and Appointment Matters, Climate Protection Management and University Health Management.
As an editorial team, the Editorial Board processed and consolidated the content submitted and successively formulated the mission statement for teaching at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin.
The members of the Editorial Board introduce themselves:
Dr Maria Gro?e
LfbA in the field of language education/German as a second language/teacher training, Professional School of Education
"I am constantly reinventing myself and my work against the backdrop of a constantly changing society. My teaching is therefore a product of constant exchange between a wide range of stakeholders and lifelong learning. I am therefore happy to contribute my creativity and openness to innovation to such an important project."
Esther Müller
Student at the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
"Through my work on the Editorial Board, I would like to contribute perspectives from teaching in the natural sciences and represent the interests of the student body."
Prof Dr Matthias Ziegler
Psychological Diagnostics, Faculty of Life Science
"Teaching is an important part of our work. The changes and reorganisations of recent years have set many things in motion here. It is therefore important to me to work on a common understanding of good teaching."
Prof Dr Lukas R?sli
Junior professorship of Scandinavian Medieval Studies at the Department of Northern European Studies, Faculty of Language, Literature and Humanities
"At Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin, not only teaching and research should be understood as a unit, but also teaching and learning. I would like to work to ensure that academic teaching and academic learning are conceived in terms of the creation of new knowledge and not just as part of a university degree."
Jan Conrad
Lecturer of Polish (lecturer for special tasks) at the Department of Slavic and Hungarian Studies, Literature and Humanities Faculty
"Through my work on the Editorial Board, I would like to contribute to the teaching mission statement process at HU and thus help to ensure that the question of good teaching, successful learning and teaching is continuously discussed at our university."
Dr Julia Frohn
Coordinator of the FDQI-HU research and development project, Professional School of Education
"The Editorial Board brings together very different perspectives on university teaching and allows us to exchange ideas on what good teaching means, what it aims for or is based on and how it can be implemented. I'm learning a lot from this process and I'm looking forward to implementing the impulses from the mission statement in my own teaching - and in dialogue with students - in the future."
Andreas Vollmer
Project Manager Teaching Team in CMS, Computer and Media Service Centre
Nina Badenberg
Student at the Department of Education Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
"Future generations of students should also be able to benefit from inclusive and low-threshold teaching at Humboldt-Universit?t. By working on the Editorial Board, I would like to make my contribution to adapting the teaching mission statement to the many changes of the past and coming years."
What tasks did the Editorial Board have in the mission statement process?
In order to ensure that the perspectives of all Humboldtians are equally incorporated into the mission statement - teaching, learning, administrative and across functional and subject groups - it was important that they also have a strong voice on the Editorial Board. For this reason, the Editorial Board worked together in a diverse team on an equal footing to develop an orientation framework that is viable for all Humboldtians.
When appointing members, attention was paid to the parity of status and subject groups as well as a strong connection to teaching. Above all, an interest in and willingness to work continuously were crucial.
The Editorial Board was constituted at the end of February 2023 and provided editorial support for the entire development process of the teaching mission statement for over a year. It was intensively supported in its work by the project team. Marking important milestones:
- Consolidate, condense and edit the results from the central and decentralised participatory formats (Feb-May 23)
- Preparation and content-related support for the thematic discussion groups (May/June 23)
- Formulation of the mission statement (June-Oct 23)
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at leitbild.lehre? Please insert an @ at this point ?hu-berlin? Please insert a period at this pointde!
Kick-off
On 15 February 2023, 101 participants came together in the Heilig-Geist-Kapelle and online to talk about what makes good teaching. Institutional Leadership and Management, students, academics and staff from all areas of the university were represented. Niels Pinkwart, Niels Helle-Meyer, Julia von Blumenthal, Christoph Schneider, Benjamin Kley and Ali Mehrens opened the panel discussion. They presented different perspectives on teaching and studying and explained that the development of the teaching mission statement is a joint task at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin. We then exchanged views in various discussion groups and together laid the foundations for the step-by-step creation of our teaching mission statement.
We were guided by the following questions:
- What constitutes good teaching?
- What does society expect from good teaching?
- How must teaching and study programmes be designed in order to be fit for the future?
- Which topics should our teaching mission statement cover?
- In what form could the mission statement be particularly helpful?
- Which values form our self-image and can inspire our teaching at HU?
- What characterises teaching at Humboldt-Universit?t - today & tomorrow?
Discussion groups
Based on the working version, in which the Editorial Board summarised and consolidated the results of the previous participatory formats for the development of the mission statement for teaching, six cross-cutting topics were critically examined and sharpened in discussion groups. All 6 discussion groups took place online for 2 hours each in the period from 30/06/2023 to 14/07/2023. Open and topic-specific invitations were sent out. A total of 54 people accepted the invitation and discussed in small groups and in plenary sessions on the basis of the impulse texts and key questions. The minutes of the discussion groups can be viewed in the Moodle course on the mission statement. We would like to thank all participants!
The six topic-specific discussion groups:
1. future viability, sustainability and innovation
Key questions: What do we understand by sustainability at Humboldt-Universit?t? Which areas of study and teaching does it apply to and how can it be felt and achieved in the long term? What vision do we share of sustainable, innovative teaching and study programmes?
2. good teaching is based on...jointly defined values
Key questions: Which values/attitudes should be explicitly written down in the mission statement? What is the university-wide canon of values on which teaching and studying at HU is based?
3. multi-perspectivity, internationalisation and openness
Key questions: What understanding underlies the terms multi-perspectivity, internationalisation and openness? What expectations do we have of a university that promotes multi-perspectivity, represents internationalisation as a cross-cutting issue and strives for openness towards cooperation for the further development of socially significant issues?
4 Inclusion, diversity and participation
Key questions: How exactly do we at Humboldt-Universit?t understand and define the basic concepts of inclusion and participation in relation to teaching and studying? What expectations do we associate with the claim of a diversity-sensitive, inclusive and non-discriminatory university?
5 Digitalisation and media education
Key questions: How does an on-campus university position itself in terms of studying and teaching in an age of technologisation, digitalisation and media diversity? How can Humboldt-Universit?t create spaces and resources to incorporate and help develop the digital transformation into a (digital) teaching and learning culture?
6 Concept of education and lifelong learning
Key questions: What is Humboldt-Universit?t's understanding of education and what is the underlying concept of education? How can Humboldt's ideas, which are historically rooted in the HU, be incorporated into today's understanding of education?
The teaching mission statement seeks its shape - Design Thinking Workshop
The mission statement for teaching is first and foremost a text document in which the common self-image of all those involved in good teaching at HU is formulated. How else does it need to be designed in order to be present and manageable in everyday teaching and learning? In what form could the teaching mission statement have the best effect?
During the development process, there were already suggestions as to which formats could be particularly helpful for the teaching mission statement. In this workshop, which took place on 30 November 2023 in the Festsaal in Luisenstra?e, we devoted ourselves entirely to the important aspect of the form(s) of presentation. Here, too, it was important to incorporate the needs and perspectives of all functional groups and stakeholders. The design thinking approach used participatory hands-on techniques to generate ideas and inspiration for visualising our teaching mission statement.
The prototypes and findings of the process can be viewed in the Moodle course on the mission statement. We would like to thank all participants!