© Universität Bielefeld
- Introduction
Master of Education (M.Ed.)
Master of Education: British and American Studies
The Master of Education supplements a prior BA with a major in another subject in order to prepare them to teach English as a foreign language in the German school system. The study programme consists of classes taken from the Bachelor curriculum according to the study regulations. The degree is a prerequisite for admission to training as a teacher in a state school.
Application and Deadlines
A condition for being admitted to the Master of Education programme at Bielefeld University is the participation in a mandatory Interview and an adequate first degree. Adequate first degrees here means:
Graduates of a BA programme a Bielefeld University in a subject that is accepted for teacher training with an appropriate profile. If no appropriate profile was selected, additional classes may be required during the master phase.
Graduates of a university with at least a six semester programme, which includes in principle a subject that is to be taught at school or the science of education plus major parts of a subject taught at school. See Externe for more information for students who are not graduates of Bielefeld University.- Studienberatung
The student advisor for the Master of Education in the Anglistik section is Dr. Peter Schildhauer.
mailto: peter.schildhauer@uni-bielefeld.de
- Course registration
The ekvv is the electronic course catalogue. Each semester, some time before the start of lectures, students are asked to register via the ekvv for the courses they are planning to take in the coming semester. M.Ed. students choose their variant of the M.Ed. program here: https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/kvv_publ/publ/Fsb_Detail.jsp?id=90445945
- Funding opportunities
Costs and financing options
General information on costs and funding can be found at https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/studium/studieninteressierte/informationen/finanzierung/
Costs and financing options for international students
International students will find information on costs and financing options for their stays at https://uni-bielefeld.de/studium/studieninteressierte/informationen/finanzierung/index.xml/
BAföG
The Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz (BAföG), the German Federal Training Assistance Act, regulates student loans and grants. After their third or typically during their fourth semesters, students receiving BAföG require confirmation for the BAföG office that they have successfully completed a portion of their studies and are eligible for further support. For most courses of study, this usually means that students should have completed the seminars for Basic Modules 1, 2 and 3 and have taken the BM3 exam, written the BM2 paper and taken the BM1 module exam, the Language Proficiency Test.
The proof for the BAföG office is provided via BAföG Form 5 https://www.bafög.de/bafoeg/shareddocs/downloads/formblaetter/v2020/formblatt_5.pdf;jsessionid=7582F15E04918CA9B166E91302D8F89B.live722?__blob=publicationFile&v=1, which has to be checked and signed by the member of staff appointed to deal with BAföG matters, Dr. Vivian Gramley mailto:v.gramley@uni-bielefeld.de. Please see her staff list page for details of information you should provide when making an appointment to sign the form.
Detailed information from the BAföG office (in German) can be accessed here: https://www.studierendenwerk-bielefeld.de/bafoeg/bafoeg-amt-kontakt-und-beratungszeiten.html
- Study Regulations
For the structure of a teaching degree and the binding regulations for students taking teaching degrees, including dates and deadlines, as well as information on the practical semester (Praxissemester) see the information on the BiSEd website (in German): https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/einrichtungen/bised/studiumlehramt/
A detailed overview of the various teaching degrees with the school subject English at specific types of schools, together with the regulations that pertain to them, can be found here: https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/sinfo/publ/master-ed/anglistik
- Practical Semester
The Practical Semester at School (Praxissemester)
What is the practical semester?
Students doing teaching degrees complete a semester with a strong practical focus during their Master of Education studies. This practice-oriented semester (Praxissemester) includes a research element related to school as well as a teaching practical at school. In the semester preceding the practical semester, the students are prepared for their placement and research in university seminars in the English studies module "Vorbereitung und Reflexion des Praxissemesters" (Grundschule)s https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/sinfo/publ/modul/27460824/ "Vorbereitung und Reflexion des Praxissemesters" (GymGe) https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/sinfo/publ/modul/87341173 (“Preparation and reflection on the practical semester at school”, primary and secondary school variants respectively.)
What institutions are involved?
The practical semester involves a cooperation between the Anglistik department, the centre for teacher training at school (ZfsL) and the respective schools themselves. A research-based learning approach is central in all of these three areas: studying to be an English teacher at university, the research element and the practical teaching element as well. All the relevant organizational information, including crucial guides to the time frame of the practical semester, can be found (in German) on the Bielefeld School of Education (BiSEd) website https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/einrichtungen/bised/.
When does it take place?
As regards the time frame, the practical semester runs either from 15th September to 15th February or from 15th February to 15th July. If the practical semester runs from February to July, the various public holidays and the start of the school holidays often mean that this practical semester is shorter than the practical semester that runs from September to February. See the BiSEd website for details.
What research do students do?
In the school research element of the practical semester, students conduct research projects to investigate specific aspects of (teaching) practice at school. In “Anglistik”, this research project focuses on aspects of actual teaching practice as well as wider practical issues related to the school context. The topics and the form the projects take depend on the affordances and specific situation at the school where the practical placement is conducted.
- FAQ
Plagiarism is using someone else's intellectual property and pretending it is your own; it is regarded as an extremely serious offence in any academic community. While many students worry about accidentally committing plagiarism, very few actually do it.
- For examples of what constitutes plagiarism and what does not, please see the “Plagiarism” section on the Using English for Academic Purposes website http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm (link used with kind permission of Andy Gillett).
For guidelines on how to cite and reference sources accurately and correctly in your papers, presentations, and theses in the various sub-disciplines of Anglistik, see “Academic Writing[MM1] .”
Unethical practices that constitute plagiarism include
- copying and pasting from internet sources or copying passages from books and
- using them in an academic paper without citing the source.
It is equally unethical to hand in a paper bought from a website or that someone was paid to write, or to present work that a friend or relative has written as if it were one’s own.
It is also intellectual theft to use parts of other writers’ texts or their ideas without citing the source.
Deliberate plagiarism is very rare but it is easily spotted and it is easy to trace the real source of the material. In Anglistik Bielefeld, the academic community of students, teachers, and researchers condemns deliberate plagiarism as a practice that undermines us all as scholars, and appropriate action is taken if it occurs.
Since this can have very serious consequences, we would like to invite you
to carefully read the above-linked page about instances of plagiarism and
to take extra care as you incorporate others’ ideas and words in your own work.[MM1]Once the page is created and the link is ready, please link this to Links and Downloads > Academic Writing.