Teaching is more than just passing on knowledge. It also means offering students a framework that focuses on an active approach to knowledge and competencies. This transforms teaching into guiding, counselling, and encouraging students to read, to experiment, and to write; to reflect and criticize; and to collaborate with each other.
Bielefeld University's new culture of studying and teaching is designed to strengthen autonomous learning or studying and to turn it into a vital component of student life. Active learning can take place everywhere: at home, in halls of residence, in pubs, and in the forest. It represents studying in the true sense of the Latin verb studere [to devote oneself]. Student tutors should be actively involved in this process. Because they are peers in relation to their colleagues, student tutors work within a horizontal communication structure. The focus of their work is not to "impart" knowledge, but to help their fellow students work independently and (self-) critically with a pragmatic problem-solving approach.
The Peer Learning and Peer Tutoring programme is designed to:
Peer Learning and Peer Tutoring qualifies students and tutors of all disciplines to develop their own concepts for collaborative learning. The long-term goal of the project is to establish a centre for collaborative student learning at Bielefeld University.
Deutsch
Peer Learning