Teaching

Teaching Philosophy:

Essentially, a transparent approach leads to discoveries, and makes them visible and tangible. This was made clear to me by my English teacher in the 10th grade. Straight-forward, recognizable explanations, clear expectations, and evaluation criteria, and more form the basis ofa transparent approach.

Through self-experienced frustration, lack of plan, accompanied by a lack of support from lecturers in my own undergraduate program, transparency, reliability and reflection now form the basic principles of my teaching. Just as I was able to experience continuous reflection in my graduate program, and thus realize an exponential growth in my competencies. The guiding principle of reliability in support and continuous reflection are key elements in the way I teach.

Teaching means accompaniment. My role as a teacher is that of a companion in the learning process. My primary goal is to ensure that students have better opportunities for their own growth than I had experienced myself. I see my responsibility as a teacher to constantly reflect on students’ learning path, and thus transform learning into an optimization process of their own competencies. So, students in my classes always have the opportunities to improve themselves (with their grades), as well as to receive (written) feedback several times within a semester. My highest priority is to equip students with all the skills they need for their project and/or final thesis in their studies. The focus is not only on scientific work, but also on the corresponding self-confidence, basic professional knowledge, the tools of self-organization, personal responsibility, direct and continuous communication, as well as clarity about expectations. According to my experience, reliability and diligence form a basic requirement on the side of the students for this.