Coaching program for newly appointed professors

Individual coaching sessions, workshops and a teaching portfolio are designed to complement each other perfectly in order for teaching staff to gain knowledge of current educational research and teaching trends. This coaching will enable you to develop and refine your own ideas and advance your professional competence.

TH Köln benefits from a great diversity of experiences, cultures, and ideas: Our students come from different countries, our teachers bring with them expertise from industry and business as well as the social sector. The Coaching program for professors new to TH Köln uses this diversity as an opportunity to improve teaching at TH Köln.
Good teaching has an essential influence on students' success. It is a significant component in building a culture of excellence at a university. Working with experts, coaches, and colleagues, the Coaching program supports teachers from the beginning on and works with them to improve the quality of their teaching. By further developing competencies as university teachers, they play a vital role in advancing TH Köln's goal of distinguishing itself as one of Germany’s leading institutions of higher education.

On March 4th. 2015 the accreditation commission of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hochschuldidaktik (German Society for Academic Didactics) included TH Köln’s Coaching program for newly appointed professors in its list of accredited programs.

Procedure

Once appointed as a professor at TH Köln, you join the Coaching program for one year. It entails a total workload of 120 hours (consisting of 50% face-to-face coaching and workshops and 50% self-study). To balance out the workload, your teaching load is reduced by four lecture hours per week during the first semester and by two hours per week during the second. After successfully having completed the program, each participant receives a certificate.

The Coaching Teaching Staff program includes:

• an opening discussion with the head of the competence team
• an overview event for all newly appointed teachers
• a three-day in-house workshop to discuss topics such as teaching, learning, advising, feedback, and evaluation
• a twice-yearly teaching portfolio workshop to create and write teaching portfolios 
• two additional workshops given by the Competence Team Academic Development at TH Köln or by external partners (hdw nrw)
• Individual coaching sessions, fellow colleagues sitting in on one of your lectures and seminars
• Design and compilation of your individual teaching portfolio

The Coaching program for newly appointed professors is carried out in collaboration with professional and experienced coaches, all of whom are experts in academic development and possess extensive knowledge of higher education institutions.