How can higher education and university teaching be improved? Discovering this is the goal of the joint initiative B3 (Bildung Beyond Boundaries) by the Jacobs Foundation and the Jacobs University. The emphasis is on evidence-based educational research by international interdisciplinary teams. The Jacobs Foundation is investing 750,000 euros into six new projects by scholars during the second phase of the B3-initiative.
Projects being supported are from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including business administration and information management, biochemistry, contemporary European history, sociology, electrical engineering and computer science. The projects focus, among other things, on digital learning to increase creativity, on optimizing laboratory courses using digital teaching aids and new pedagogical approaches, and on the development and evaluation of educational methods dealing with contingencies, i.e. uncertainties, doubts and contradictions.
“We want to make a contribution to sustainably improve the teaching and learning experience of students. The selected projects provide just the right impetus in this respect. We are already looking forward to the results,” explains Simon Sommer, co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation and co-initiator of B3 – Bildung Beyond Boundaries.
The research projects will start in fall 2020 and run for 18 months.