February 22nd 2022

Publication on website "Atlas of good teaching”

The project "Caring Communities for People with Support Needs" was nominated for the Ars Docendi State Award for Excellent Teaching 2021 and recognized and published as an example of good teaching at the Department of Social Work at MCI | The Entrepreneurial School®.

Poster Caring Communities  © MCI
Poster Caring Communities © MCI

The project was implemented in the course "Project Work". The course is part of the module "Applied Research & Development" in the curriculum of the Master's program "Social Work, Social Policy and Social Management" at the Department of Social Work at MCI | The Entrepreneurial School®.

The course aims to familiarize students with methods and instruments of Social Work research and to apply them to current research projects. Interdisciplinary or networked thinking is to be promoted in the implementation of theoretical knowledge in practice.

 

Short summary of the project "Caring Communities for People with Support Needs"

The interlinking of research, teaching and practice is an essential part of university education. The course "Project Work - Caring Communities" focuses precisely on this by combining a practice research project with teaching. Students were thus given the opportunity to plan and carry out a complex research project and present the results.

This evaluation project on the subject of ‘Inclusive Living’ was carried out at the Department of Social Work at MCI | The Entrepreneurial School® in the academic year 2017/18.

In 2016 Lebenshilfe Tirol dissolved a residential home for people with learning difficulties and multiple disabilities. Since then, eight people have been living in pairs in flats in a residential neighbour-hood. The new form of housing should give people with support needs more independence and self-determination and to promote integration into the social environment.

The project course focused on three perspectives (residents, staff and neighbourhood) using qualitative and quantitative methods in a mixed-methods approach to investigate the effects of this form of self-determined living, in an innovative design that follows the quality standards of inclusive research. A peer researcher (person with intellectual disability) advised and supported the research group. The results were presented to the residents, their relatives, the team, different stakeholders and the neighbourhood using an animated film in easy language and World Café discussion groups.

Project Management: FH-Prof.in Mag.a Dr.in Eva Fleischer, DAS (MCI) und Lorenz Kerer, MSc. (Lebenshilfe Tirol)

Project Team: Adelheid Bachler, BA; Karin Guggenberger, BA; Julia Heuvelmann, BA; Sabine Kröll, BA; Magdalena Meindlhumer, BA; Lisa Moser, BA; Laura Schramm, BA; Svenja Schüürmann, BA; Anna-Lena Wessel, BA; Angelika Wittek, BA, Simon Prucker

Behind the project "Atlas of Good Teaching" is a website for the exchange of ideas and experiences in the field of higher education teaching. Good practice examples are made publicly available as a generic "online reference work".  Through its function as an overview tool and for the mutual exchange of information, the website is intended to support the continuous improvement of quality in teaching and to make corresponding activities visible.

 

Who is behind the website?

In spring 2013, the Austrian University Conference set up a working group to strengthen the quality of university teaching. The working group consists of representatives of uniko, FHK, the Conference of Senate Chairs, ÖPUK, ÖH, the Science Council and BMWFW and aims to develop recommendations for the further development of quality in teaching and strengthening the reputation of teaching.