Teaching and teacher training

Teaching at the Chair of Didactics and Digitalization in Special Education with a focus on physical and motor development is understood as a contribution to the scientifically based and professionally oriented qualification of teachers who work with children and young people with physical and complex disabilities as well as chronic somatic illnesses. It is embedded in special education teacher training at the University of Cologne and combines theoretical foundations with reflective practical relevance, an inclusive educational approach, and educational ethical responsibility.

The aim is to prepare future teachers for the complex requirements of inclusive school and educational processes – especially where participation is structurally at risk or education is linked to physical requirements. Teaching follows an interdisciplinary approach and integrates perspectives from special education, educational science, medicine, ethics, social law, and digital technology. Particular emphasis is placed on a close connection between theory and practice, critical reflection on social conditions, and the ability to responsibly shape educational action in the context of disability, the body, participation, and technology.

In terms of teaching, the chair is guided by the concept of enabling pedagogy, which does not aim at conformity or standardization, but rather at creating conditions under which education becomes accessible, understandable, and meaningful for all. The focus is not solely on the pedagogical arrangement, but on the perception of the other as a subject – with specific modes of expression, needs, and approaches to the world that must be taken seriously and responded to professionally.

Teaching formats such as research-based learning, FLIP-I (interdisciplinary research-based learning in the practical semester), digital teaching/learning settings, interdisciplinary project seminars, and reflective diagnostics offer students opportunities to engage with their future professional roles in a scientifically sound, praxis-oriented, and ethically reflective manner. Topics such as communication, body and movement, care and assistance, alternative forms of expression, digital access, social law fundamentals, and pedagogy in the context of illness are consistently addressed from an inclusion-oriented perspective.

Teacher training in the area of physical and motor development is not understood at the chair as the transfer of knowledge, but rather as the development of a professional attitude—oriented toward justice, recognition, solidarity, and the structural facilitation of education.