Interview with teaching coach Dr. Cornelia Frank
Research-based learning today [25.06.19]
Railway foreman, midwife, tour guide, gardener? Using a collection of Playmobil figures, teaching coach Dr. Cornelia Frank explains various types of teaching personalities. Photo: University of Hohenheim | Leonhardmair
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Hello Mrs Frank, what exactly was the reason for the Hohenheim Memorandum? The subject of research-based learning isn't new, is it?
In terms of timing, three occasions have coincided, so to speak: First, the international conference focusURE, which took stock of the Do's and Dont's in research-based learning.
Second, the almost fiftieth anniversary of the birth of research-based learning in Germany, which began in 1970 under different conditions. The question therefore arises as to the extent to which the research-based learning of today corresponds to the research-based learning of the past.
Thirdly, the approaching end of the Quality Pact for Teaching, from which several projects for research-based learning are financed nationwide, as is the Humboldt reloaded project at the University of Hohenheim. As it is not yet clear how things will continue after 2020, we also wanted to send a signal to politicians with the memorandum: Research-based learning is worthwhile, the effort is justified, but resources are also needed to maintain quality in this way.
What is the benefit for students?
In research-based learning it is a matter of taking one's own ideas seriously and approaching an object of research with amazement. You take a questioning attitude, create hypotheses if necessary, and develop a strategy for finding answers. Students often work in a team and collect data independently.
They encounter obstacles in the process, at least sometimes. To overcome these, to continue, to learn to persevere - that strengthens you immensely. Maybe you first hit a dead-end, then get up again, and at the end you are a decisive step further. And by the way, you also gain a lot of knowledge about yourself.
The skills that students practice during this process are perhaps even more important today than they were in the 1970s - and not just if you're looking for a research career...
What do you mean?
We live in an increasingly complex world in which many systems and actors interact with each other in many different ways. The clock is constantly being accelerated by digital transformation. Insecurities and ambiguities are on the rise. This places completely different demands on young people than in the 1970s.
In the business world, this is a big issue: there is virtually no leadership seminar and no coaching book that does not talk about dealing with these changes. A common catchword is "Fit for the VUCA world". VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
And to be honest, I could hardly imagine a more effective VUCA fitness program than research-based learning. That is an asset with which universities can enhance their profile. I see an untapped potential.
As places of research, universities are a very special kind of VUCA world and can optimally prepare for the scientific as well as the non-university VUCA world with research-based learning. Both are characterized by constant changes, uncertainties, complexity, and ambiguities - and will become even more so in the future.
What do lecturers gain from this - apart from additional effort?
Research-based learning involves effort, but depending on how the project is designed, lecturers can also benefit from it in their own work. Ideally, good teaching will no longer be at the expense of valuable research time, but will also benefit one's own research.
This applies, for example, at the beginning of a research project: Together with students, pilot studies can be carried out on a small scale, for example, in order to check the research design, to go through all the stages once, and if necessary to be able to adapt it, before it then goes on to the large studies.
For doctoral students and postdocs, research-based teaching is at the same time a kind of leadership coaching: because if there are few rules and a lot of freedom, leadership is of course much more in demand. Depending on the situation, it may be appropriate, for example, to provide collegial guidance or hierarchical guidelines. Sometimes it is necessary to convince, motivate, sometimes delegate or demand results.
It doesn't matter whether you later take on a professorship or an executive position in a company: Team satisfaction and success depend on leadership competence.
For professors, however, research-based learning can be an opportunity to discover talents at an early stage, e.g. for assistant or doctoral positions.
Last but not least, there is of course often a very strong intrinsic motivation. Many scientists tell me how fulfilling they find it to socialize their students into the world of research and science and to bring them closer to the way researchers think.
You work in the Humboldt reloaded team as a teaching coach. What are your tasks?
I offer workshops and individual coaching for project supervisors, and key competence training for students who are learning through research.
The overriding aim of coaching is to develop and strengthen the individual teaching personalities. I support lecturers in discovering their strengths and what distinguishes them in teaching. It is also about their understanding of roles and their individual answers to the question: Who am I when I teach?
Lokführer oder Gärtner? In Workshops von Cornela Frank kommt eine Sammlung von Playmobil-Figuren häufig zum Einsatz.
In my workshops I like to explain different types of teaching using my small collection of Playmobil figures.
For example, there is the locomotive driver, who has a clear goal in mind, knows the timetable exactly and makes it transparent, thus conveying a sense of safety to his "passengers". Whether, however, the "passengers" use the shared journey time for research-based learning or pursue other occupations is their sole responsibility.
Another example is the gardener, who knows that everything depends on where he first sows the seed and what the quality of the seed is, and that he must then rely on nature because his influence on growth is limited.
No approach is better or worse per se. But it is helpful to become aware of one's own self-image.
Beyond that, the goal of the concrete coaching process naturally always depends on the respective concerns of the lecturers. These can be very different. For example: How do I deal with emotionally challenging situations? Do I always have to know everything as a lecturer? How can I create synergies between research and teaching? etc.?
Last but not least: What does the university as a whole have to gain from research-based learning?
Competition among universities for students and the best minds for research is increasing. Research-based learning can play an important role in increasing the attractiveness of the university teaching profile and in identifying and fostering talent at an early stage.
Ultimately, however, there is even more at stake: the "raison d'être" of the university, a place of science, research, and education. In times of the mass university after the Bologna reform, this self-image is being challenged and renegotiated.
Research-based learning makes universities unique. In this way, university studies differ significantly from vocational training or studying at a university of applied sciences. If it is possible to maintain and further develop this unique selling proposition in the current framework conditions, the university's time-honored concept will continue to exist in the future and be supported by society.
Thank you very much for the interview!
Interview: Leonhardmair; Translation: Neudorfer
