Communication in the Giant Mountains
The five-day "Communication" Summer School took place at the end of August at Dom Parada in the Polish Giant Mountains.
The main topics of the Continuing Education Program in Engineering Pedagogy (IPWB) for educators were body language and voice, as well as counseling and coaching.
Body Language and Voice
Together with instructor Daniela Schober—who has over ten years of experience on stage and in front of television cameras and works as a trainer and consultant for executives—the participants developed various techniques for “good speaking.”
We learned to breathe consciously and efficiently and to heighten our awareness of our own bodies in order to prevent stress and remain calm during presentations and teaching situations.
Consulting and Coaching
Together with Jörg Heidig, we practiced various consulting scenarios and techniques for effective conversation, such as solution-oriented questioning. Jörg Heidig is a Diplom-communication psychologist, an expert in didactics, and an adjunct instructor for practical psychology courses.
During our group hike, the group demonstrated its ability to function as a team through group dynamics exercises. One participant struggled with wear and tear on their hiking boots, but the problem was resolved thanks to the creativity of the participants and materials that happened to be on hand.
The “Communication” Summer School is part of the IPWB for instructors, whose goal is to further develop the engineering didactics competencies of our university staff in the STEM faculties. To this end, this continuing education program was created; it is designed in accordance with the guidelines of the Berlin Society for Engineering Education and is carried out in cooperation with the Institute for Vocational Education at the Technical University of Dresden. The IPWB for instructors is organized by the Macroproperties/Match 3 (MM3) project of the Career Services Office at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. The next continuing education program in engineering education for faculty members is expected to take place from December 2018 to February 2020. Those interested are welcome to contact Daniel Winkler at daniel.winkler@hszg.de.
More information is available here.