Researching Places of Faith
The RWTH Didactics of Social Sciences Teaching and Research Unit invites the public to attend the kick off event to its project "GoAIX! – Glaubensorte erforschen." The event is Thursday, September 22, 2016, from 10am to 12 noon and will take place at the Katechetisches Institut of the Diocese of Aachen at Eupenerstraße 132.
The Katechetisches Institut of the Diocese of Aachen is a project partner. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's "Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung," which focuses on the quality of teacher training. Sylvia Löhrmann, minister of school and further education of North Rhine-Westphalia; Professor Aloys Krieg, vice-rector for teaching at RWTH; project head Professor Christian Kuchler; Dr. Jean-Pierre Sterck-Degueldre from the Katechetisches Institut; and Frank Tönnissen, DLR project sponsor from Bonn, are participants.
The increasing diversity of our society is particularly reflected in classrooms. In order to learn about the different cultures and faiths of their peers, school students can attend various places of faith. The Buddhist or Hindu temple, Christian church, mosque, synagogue and many more tell the stories of the members of their community. In doing so, they demonstrate the cultural and religious diversity of Aachen. A teaching-learning laboratory will also be established, which will strive for close collaboration between the teaching training students in history, Catholic theology, and political science at RWTH, and schools in the Sekundarstufe I and II. Pupils will become familiar with research methods in the humanities, by analyzing the historic sources of a place of faith, such as newspaper articles, city plans, letters, or reports.
In a second step participants will independently investigate the place of faith – there they can speak with representatives of the respective religion. Source work will be linked with learning outside of school with a focus on discovery and action. The teacher training students will have the opportunity to design and conduct the individual modules for a place of faith.
Students, teachers, pupils, and interested individuals are invited to the kick off event. Please register by sending an email to Sonja Schröder or calling +49 241 6000419.
Source: Press and Communications