Excellence in teaching

Alexandra Ludewig has studied and worked in Germany, England, South Africa and Australia, and has obtained two doctoral degrees, from Munich's LMU University in Germany and from The University of Queensland in Australia. She is presently a Senior Lecturer in German and European Studies and Convenor of German at The University of Western Australia. Alexandra received an Excellence in Teaching award in 2002.

Teaching, learning and research are integral parts of my university life. Not only are they most stimulating and rewarding activities, their mix and subsequent cross-fertilisation are essential for an inspiring, informed, and up-to-date learning environment. Although my academic life consists of this wonderful mixture of activities, I regard the teaching component of my professional duties as the one that provides the most lasting and most immediate gratification as well as stimulation for all other related duties.

Thinking about people that have greatly influenced my life, especially teachers and university educators come to mind as mentors that have shown enthusiasm for their subject and students, and have left significant impressions on my life and given it unexpected directions at times. In my teaching I am thriving to give back at multiple levels to staff and students alike what I feel I have appreciated most in my personal experience.

Therefore, I take the preparation of my classes as seriously as I would a presentation at an international conference and devote a lot of time on preparation and evaluation of my classes. My underlying philosophy for the teaching content is driven by an aim for the right mixture of academic challenge, curiosity, creativity and surprise as a key to providing a stimulating learning environment in which my enthusiasm is a catalyst and not the end of student development.

Therefore, I employ an enabling-teaching-methodology. In striving to communicate my passion for German and European Studies to the students, my goal is to encourage them to develop a sense of self-reflection as I believe that best learning outcomes are achieved through one's own discoveries. Hence, I place priority on teaching students in a way that empowers them. This approach, that is student-centred in its outcomes, is at the same time dependent on the lecturer's provision for a suitable framework to achieve this goal. To this end, I strive to be organised, providing a clear structure, communicating aims and objectives and desired learning outcomes. I focus on the students' needs without restricting their journey of discovery and intellectual pursuit with too much guidance and protection.

While providing students with choices to address their individual learning styles and needs, I also aim for fair and transparent assessment that allows students to be creative and apply their knowledge rather than to regurgitate what has been given to them. This should enable them to show and apply higher order learning and understanding. Likewise, continuous assessment during the course of the semester is designed in such a way as to allow for their diversity. It provides a gradient from basic to very challenging tasks, allowing for people with different degrees of literacy (cultural, linguistic, technical and numerical).

In my course design I highlight context, applicability and authenticity of the material as it is vital for students to see the every-day-life application of the subject matter. This is aided by the establishment of a close nexus between teaching, learning and research, and I don't shy away from exploiting the topicality of films, music bands or advertisements to mark the significance of my subject. Yet, I see it as important that this engagement goes beyond the purely anecdotal level. Refereed research publications dealing with pop-versions of Nietzsche or popular films such as Run Lola Run give this approach the necessary credibility.

Finally, coming back to my original motto, I would like to stress that I believe that only the right mixture of all the integral parts of academic life as well as thorough preparation and highest quality make for an inspiring, informed and up-to-date learning environment in which students will find the best possible basis for their personal and intellectual development. The University of Western Australia, which I joined in 1997, provides an excellent framework for the application of this goal and has certainly turned my working life into a pleasurable journey.