Components

‘Hetairos’ is made up of the two components ‘training’ and ‘practical experience’.
In the introductory phase, the young academics – all Junior Members of the GSGG – are given professional preparation for the tasks ahead, in the course of a two-day seminar on university didactics entitled ‘Introduction to academic teaching and learning’. Subjects such as designing a seminar course, the role of the teacher, students’ expectations, and conducting and leading a seminar are discussed.
This is followed by a two-day course on activating methods, which are the basics of candidate-focused training.
The third part of this introduction to university didactics is a one-day seminar on ‘Examining in the university context’. Here, the early career academic teachers are familiarised with various different methods and techniques of examination and with methods for evaluating seminar performance.
Additionally, junior teachers have to choose one course (at least 8 hours) from the different course programmes of the division of teaching and learning in higher education.

The second component of ‘Hetairos’ is team-teaching. One junior and one senior member of GSGG form a ‘Hetairos’ team and teach one course in tandem. The teamwork consists of planning, preparation and transaction of the individual seminar sessions.
The team-teaching phase is supported by an accompanying discussion among colleagues on practical issues; this takes place twice during the semester. During these moderated talks the young academic teachers are invited to exchange their experiences and challenges as well as to discuss strategies for solving problems.
At the end of the semester the team-taught course is evaluated by the students and the final evaluation of the team-teaching is assessed together with the programme coordinators.

Junior teachers can add this course to their teaching portfolio. For senior teachers the seminar can be included when calculating their obligatory teaching volume.
After completion of the programme participants receive a Hetairos certificate.