INSIDER-Newsletter Issue 05, August 2022
Getting ready for university teaching
HZDR researcher first to complete teaching program at TU Dresden
Teaching is a skill that needs to be learned – this is especially true for scientists who work at non-university institutions and are facing the challenge of taking over a seminar or lecture in higher education. The Center for Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching (ZiLL) at TU Dresden has created the “Teaching Synergies Program” for just these situations. The program is open to all junior researchers of DRESDEN-concept. It offers a teaching tandem and various qualification workshops in order to introduce scientists to the organization of research-oriented seminars. HZDR’s Dr. Claudia Arndt was the first participant to successfully complete the program.
Dr. Claudia Arndt
Source: Amac Garbe
“For my further career at the research center and at the university, academic teaching was at the top of my to-do list”, explains Arndt, who conducts research at HZDR on the use of genetically modified T cells for personalized cancer therapy. “When you come from a non-university institution like HZDR, access to teaching is not exactly easy. This is where the program, which I became aware of through Postdoc Center HZDR-TUD, comes in: It has made the preparation for my first course much easier by providing me with a wide range of support. My seminar on immunology has been a complete success thanks to taking part in the program.”
In the program, Arndt received didactic support for teaching from the ZiLL over several months. She formed a teaching tandem with Prof. Marc Schmitz, whom she already knew from her student days. The head of the Institute of Immunology at the University Hospital supported her in particular in working out the scientific aspects of the seminar. The focus was on how she could best integrate her own research findings in the field of radioimmunology into the teaching. At the same time, Arndt learned the basics of didactics in a self-study course. She then tested these in four 90-minute seminars for students of human medicine. Laura Kaden, officer of the Teaching Synergies Program, also advised her on teaching methods and facilitated exchanges with other lecturers at the university.
“I especially enjoyed the interaction with the students. It took some time to get used to online teaching at first, but I was able to try things out and found a good solution by combining short teaching units with videos and working with small groups in break-out rooms”, says Arndt, looking back on the program. Thanks to the experience she gained, she has now caught fire and wants to hold more seminars at Prof. Schmitz’s chair in the future. She can recommend the program to all postdocs starting three years after their doctorate: “It allows you to think about your own teaching at an early stage when you apply for a more advanced research project. But before you get involved, there’s one thing you should bring to the table: a certain intrinsic interest in teaching”, the HZDR biologist says with a wink.
All postdocs interested in participating and learning more about the Teaching Synergies Program are invited to attend the program’s next info session via Zoom on September 2, 2022 from 12pm to 1pm. To register and for any other questions about the program, please email hans_joerg.schmidt@tu-dresden.de.
Profile:
Together with physician Dr. Frederick Fasslrinner, Dr. Claudia Arndt leads a junior research group at the Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research at HZDR. The six-member, interdisciplinary team is developing methods based on CAR-T cell therapy to tackle a form of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML). “CAR” stands for “Chimeric Antigen Receptor” and is a novel immunotherapy that exists alongside known approaches such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Arndt has been researching for ten years to make this therapy safer and more effective. Her work is funded by the Mildred Scheel Early Career Center (MSNZ) of the Medical Faculty of the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden.
Contact:
Dr. Janine Göttling
Postdoc Center HZDR-TUD
Phone: +49 351 260 2004 | Email: j.goettling@hzdr.de
