Award-Winning Podcast: Carla Jänicke Wins at the International Conference of German Teachers

High recognition for innovative teaching concepts at the intersection of language and subject-specific pedagogy: RPTU doctoral candidate Carla Jänicke was awarded the prize for the best podcast in August at the International Conference of German Teachers (IDT) in Lübeck. The award-winning entry highlights how language-conscious subject instruction can serve as the key to successful teacher training in the natural sciences.

The award-winning entry, titled “Co-Construction Until the Chemistry Is Right,” was created as part of the first-ever podcast competition, which was held under the motto “Diversity Creates Opportunities! The Vienna Theses on Language Policy in My Everyday Professional Life.”

Using the example of a seminar on chemistry didactics at RPTU Kaiserslautern, the doctoral student of Professor Sara Hägi-Mead and Junior Professor Johann-Nikolaus Seibert, working as a team with Leon Richter and Laura Leppla, demonstrates how co-constructive collaboration between German and chemistry education helps student teachers develop concepts for language-sensitive chemistry instruction at an early stage.

This highlights how the Vienna Theses on Language Policy are integrated into university teaching and what opportunities this creates for inclusive teacher education. “The podcast highlights how interdisciplinary collaboration already links language learning and subject-specific learning in university education. In doing so, we are putting into practice exactly what the Vienna Theses advocate: viewing diversity as an opportunity and promoting linguistic participation in all subjects,” emphasizes Carla Jänicke.

In the podcast, the doctoral candidates discuss the importance of language and its role in chemistry instruction. They present their experiences with a transdisciplinary approach that bridges German language pedagogy and chemistry pedagogy and reflect on their collaboration and its implementation in joint seminars. Using selected examples, such as lesson planning or videotaped classroom scenarios, they also illustrate thematic aspects of the concept. The reference to the Vienna Theses on language policy underscores the relevance of language-building seminars in the first phase of teacher education, beyond the subject of German.

About the IDT

The International German Teachers’ Conference (IDT) is considered the world’s largest forum for German as a foreign and second language. This year, approximately 3,000 teachers, university faculty, and subject experts from over 100 countries attended the 18th edition of the conference in Lübeck. With specialized sessions, workshops, and a diverse cultural program, the IDT offers a central forum every four years for exchange, networking, and innovation in the field of German as a foreign and second language. The podcast competition took place for the first time this year.