The Center of Excellence for Technology Education (CETE) is a network of leading academic research institutions in the sector of technological education. The aim of the international network is to promote research on processes of technological education through joint research projects, study and research visits, international workshops and summer schools, thereby specifically recruiting and supporting offspring in science and technology disciplines.
Further, research-based knowledge should be integrated in school practice through publications and teacher training. In this process it is supposed to also have an effect on academic teacher training through international study cooperations and digital teaching and learning offers. 

The network is led by Prof. Dr. Ingelore Mammes – holder of the chair for School Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen – and funded over 3 years with more than 600.000 Euro by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Scientific partners in the network are the University of Luxembourg, the Delft University of Technology, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, the University of Missouri and the University of Cambridge.

Promoted by: TyhssenKrupp

Kinder Ingenieurs Day (KIngs Day - Kids’ engineering day) in cooperation with Thyssen Krupp

Being interested in something is not only the foundation of a lifelong learning process, but also strongly affects later career choices. Interest is developed during childhood. While the interests of children can be aroused or modified easily, the interests of adolescents are mostly fixed. Therefore, the development of children’s and adolescents’ interests plays a significant role in regard to the current shortage of skilled labour and engineers. In order to arouse a lifelong examination of science and technology, it is necessary to build up a certain enthusiasm for the topic at a young age.

The KIng’s Day is supposed to help create this enthusiasm. As a part of the School of Engineering Education its task is to take long-term care of an always purposeful examination of science and technology in the framework of a co-operation with ThyssenKrupp.

Promoted by: VDI

Six teaching units have been designed and tested based on the didactic concept “Natur & Technik” (Nature & Technology) that has been developed between 2011 and 2013 in cooperation with the VDI, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the Technische Universität Braunschweig. The creation of the teaching units and materials corresponding to the didactic concept was done by a group of science and engineering teachers over the course of several workshops. In March 2015, the concept, together with an exemplary series of lessons, was presented at the 106th MNU-Bundeskongress. Since then, further teaching units are published through an online portal of the VDI.

Promoted by: VDI

The results of the meeting on "creating transitions in science and technology" and its subsequent discussion on the necessity of a continuous scientific and technological education led to the foundation of a new study group. Its emphasis lies on the arrangement and the development of a curriculum of a subject for science and technology.

To support this development process, personnel and material costs have been requested and granted by the project’s patron, VDI.

Cooperating with Universität Wien, this project aims to qualify teaching staff in regard to economic education. Methods, such as creating syllabuses for economic and social studies or advanced training in order to increase teachers’ professionalization, will support this process. This is a succeeding project of Universität Paderborn and Universität Wien, originated in the department of business and human resource education. It is further supported by the department of school pedagogics with emphasis on research on classroom teaching in the field of teachers’ professionalization.

Explanatory notes: Universität Paderborn is the main applicant, therefore the project remains to be carried out there.

Promoted by: VDI

Educational policy demands early encouragement of children and adolescents as a result of benchmarking schools in the field of natural scientific education. Also primary schools’ pupils are supposed to be introduced to technology and science in a challenging way. Teachers often neglect technological education due to a personal lack of skills in that particular subject. This favours a neglect of technological education in general which is further promoted by German syllabuses.

Therefore, the aim of this project is to impact skills and interests of teachers through advanced training and mentoring programmes in order to qualify teachers to teach classes on technology and science. A common agreement between North Rhine-Westphalia’s ministry for education and VDI brought the project into being in 2007. Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt are involved as well. The Federal States provide money for material, occupancy and personnel costs and cover expenses for journey and overnight accommodation of participants and lecturers of advanced training.

IdeenPark 2012
promoted by: Thyssen Krupp

IdeenPark (translated “park of ideas”) has the aim to arouse children’s and adolescents’ interest in science and technology. In 2012, this event took place in Essen. The department of educational sciences accepted the task to contribute to this project and set up a booth in cooperation with VDIni Club. The displayed “brush-fella and his gang's" purpose was to arouse interest in science and technology and represented the Faculty of Educational Sciences in the “park of ideas” in 2012.

FIT ^{FÜR DIE ZUKUNFT} (Förderung des Interesses an Technik - encouragement of interest in technology) 

The project’s goal was to arouse especially girls' interest in technology while focusing on their parents as main agents. According to surveys, they significantly influence their children’s development of interests through the range of activities they show them. Therefore, parents' lack of interest in science and technology and their attitude in regards to girls and technology can easily lead to a neglect of so called parent-daughter-technology-activities. For this reason, the project offers a total number of eight technology-afternoons for parents and daughters and thus initialises them to examine the subject of technology. It shall provide professional assistance and support the parents and daughters with academically.

It has been carried out at Universität Paderborn, supported by North Rhine-Westphalia’s Genderpreis.

A future modification of the project aims to do research on parents’ conditions in regard to different educational backgrounds to clarify in how far they can support their children in matters of technology and natural scientific education. Offers of intervention are to be developed in the laboratories in order to do research on their effects.

Promoted by: VDI & MNU

Results of international school benchmarking surveys stress the necessity of arousing interest in technological and natural scientific education. This context especially includes early educational processes and their continuation in matters of demands of educational policy. By this, transitions between educational institutions gain importance. Thusly, it is necessary to focus on the gateway between primary and secondary school in order to benefit the field of natural science and technology.

Management & organisation: Arnold a Campo, Elke Hartmann, Ingelore Mammes