Three questions for “People With An Agenda”
“Cooperation takes place on an equal footing.”
HTA Innovation Professor Dr Steffen Steinicke
Prof. Dr Steffen Steinicke
What innovation in Education are you currently developing, and what motivates you?
Steffen Steinicke: I am convinced that, within the current framework of teaching evaluation, we are not fully measuring what needs to be measured in order to adapt higher education to the ever-accelerating challenges facing the younger generation. I am therefore pursuing an approach that draws on the latest insights and methods from my field of expertise – service management – to explore alternative avenues for teaching and learning evaluation. My concept is based on the idea that lecturers and learners can only achieve the best possible results if they pull in the same direction – in other words, if they cooperate. How we measure the quality of this cooperation in the teaching and learning process is therefore the key to effectively improving higher education. In short: I am developing a new system for teaching and learning evaluation.
Numerous studies have shown that cooperative behaviour, amongst other things, makes us happy and that this has enabled humankind to evolve far more successfully than any other living creature. Yet our everyday lives, ever since childhood, have been shaped by a competitive mindset and cut-throat competition. Changing this is what drives me. Measuring cooperation is the first step; for we can only understand and improve what we measure.
In what way does your innovation help students to become responsible designers of the future?
Steffen Steinicke: The realisation that cooperative behaviour is more successful in many situations and that we humans can achieve more together.
How can other lecturers benefit from your innovation?
Steffen Steinicke: Collaboration requires transparency regarding the intentions of all cooperation partners. I hope that, through this new teaching and learning evaluation, we as lecturers will develop a better understanding of our students and their behaviour. Conversely, this naturally applies to students as well. Collaboration takes place on an equal footing. We need to learn this, and learning is always worthwhile.
Her teaching agenda at HM in three words
Steffen Steinicke: Cooperative, innovative, individual.
Prof. Dr Steffen Steinicke studied industrial engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. His doctoral dissertation focused on location-specific product group management in the retail sector. Before being appointed to the Industrial Service Management department at Hochschule München in 2010, he held several management positions in Berlin, Munich and New York, most recently as head of the Siemens AG transformer plant in Nuremberg. In addition, Steinicke is Dean of Studies and Examinations Coordinator for the Department of Business Administration, and a member of the Head of Degree Programme for the extra-occupational bachelor’s degree in ‘Business Administration & Corporate Management’ and the MBA in ‘Management and Business Strategy’.