Writing the future (Die Zukunft schreiben)

The SRH University Campus Berlin-funded lighthouse project “Writing the Future”, a collaboration between the Institute for Writing Studies and the International Institute for Sustainable Management, uses the example of booksprints to explore how future skills, such as literary communication skills and team skills, can be promoted in a curriculum-integrated way and develops principles for evaluating them.  (PhD project).

Funding: Lighthouse project of the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences (Leuchtturmprojekt der SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences)

Duration: 09/2022-08/2026

Project partners: Prof Dr Nadja Sennewald, Prof Dr Anabel Ternes and Prof Dr Katrin Girgensohn, SRH University; Prof Dr Kirsten Schindler (Bergische University of Wuppertal); Prof Dr Sarah Brommer (University of Bremen)

Doctoral project: Anja Voigt-Färber (SRH University/European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder))

Contact: [email protected]

The project:

Using the didactic format “Booksprints” as an example, the project explores how future skills, such as literary communication skills and team skills, can be promoted in a curriculum-integrated manner and develops principles for evaluating them. To this end, the doctoral project specifically examines the subjectively perceived experiences of students in this innovative learning setting and the extent to which these become an expression of new learning (Foelsing & Schmitz, 2021). Booksprints shift towards procedural knowledge with a strong focus on self-directed learning among learners, which makes students' self-direction skills tangible and prompts them to actively adapt and optimize their learning strategies and processes.

A booksprint is a format for the collaborative writing of texts, usually specialist books and articles (see Arbeitskollektiv Schreibwissenschaft, 2024 and vimeo.com/425448988). The format was inspired by the principles of agile software development and is often used in companies that practise new forms of work (New Work). Booksprints have been further developed for the university context as a didactic writing format to enable students to experience an authentic professional writing project (Henry & Voigt, 2018). Authentic writing tasks, i.e. writing tasks that are not only aimed at teachers but are intended for publication and have a broader audience, contribute significantly to the development of writing skills (Bräuer & Schindler, 2011). Many other possible future skills are promoted through booksprints: The ability to co-operate and communicate, self-direction, information literacy, problem-solving skills and a sense of responsibility are among them.

The aim of the research project is to use the booksprint as a prototype to develop initial approaches for a methodological toolkit for evaluating the acquisition of future skills and, building on this, to design a model for implementing the teaching of future skills in university curricula. From a research perspective, we want to contribute to the educational science discourse on the development of skills in higher education and, from a teaching perspective, further develop the CORE principle in an interdisciplinary and future-oriented way with a view to future skills.