Abstract
The demands and challenges facing teachers are steadily increasing. In addition to subject-specific expertise, teachers are now expected to develop competencies in a range of cross-cutting areas – such as media literacy and AI, inclusion, language education, internationalization, and physical activity promotion – and to integrate these competencies into their everyday professional practice. These expectations cannot be fully addressed through traditional subject-based curricula alone.
In this context, so-called micro-credentials and certificate programs are playing an increasingly important role in both pre-service and in-service teacher education. They provide flexible, targeted learning opportunities that enable teachers to acquire competencies in specific areas beyond traditional degree programs. Because they are modular and practice-oriented, micro-credentials can be integrated more easily into teachers’ ongoing professional learning and can respond quickly to emerging educational challenges and changing societal demands.
Prof. Claus Krieger will share and discuss international approaches to the development and use of micro-credentials in teacher education,and will present three certificate programs developed and successfully implemented at the University of Hamburg, namely certificates in Artificial Intelligence, Internationalization, and Active Schools/Active Teaching.
Furthermore, Prof.Claus Kriegerwill link the topic of micro-credentials with one of the major research priorities of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hamburg: Uncertainty as a Pedagogical Challenge. This research regards uncertainty as a constitutive dimension of educational processes and pedagogical action and explores how teachers navigate ambiguity, complexity, and unpredictability in teaching, learning, and school development. It particularly focuses on teacher professionalization and investigates how teacher education can prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to engage productively with growing societal and educational uncertainties. This research area integrates perspectives from educational theory, subject didactics,teacher professionalization, and school development,while also advancing methodological approaches for the empirical study of educational uncertainty.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/srbOjWkNhz0
