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News from the University of Regensburg

FiLBY goes Norway!

A subject-integrated reading promotion program developed at the University of Regensburg for use in Bavarian elementary schools will soon be implemented in Norway.


September 10, 2024

From 2018 to 2023, Professor Dr. Anita Schilcher and Dr. Johannes Wild, Chair of Didactics of German Language and Literature at the University of Regensburg, developed, implemented, and evaluated FiLBY (Fachintegrierte Leseförderung Bayern), a subject-integrated reading promotion program for Bavarian elementary schools. Recently, the Norwegian National Reading Center at Stavanger has expressed interest in implementing the program in Norway.

Anita Schilcher, who is also the director of the Teacher Education Center at the University of Regensburg (RUL), reports that her Norwegian colleagues have officially requested permission from the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture to implement the program in their country. FiLBY will promote reading on a national level in Norway. "The materials will be translated and adapted for use in Norwegian schools. In addition, the texts will be used for a research project," says Schilcher. An intensive academic exchange between the Regensburg and Norwegian teams is planned for 2025.

The efficacy of FiLBY is evident, as evidenced by its success in assisting students with reading difficulties. FiLBY is currently in use at over 90% of Bavarian elementary schools, as reported by Johannes Wild. He also states that "well over 20,000 Bavarian primary school teachers have already completed the corresponding training courses in face-to-face, online, or as online self-study courses." Since July 2023, Schilcher has been contributing to the advancement of teacher training in Bavaria as a member of an expert commission.

For Professor Dr. Nikolaus Korber, UR's Vice President for Study, Teaching and Continuing Education, FilBY's international path is a pleasing example of how the University of Regensburg's long-standing and intensive cooperation with regional and national teaching staff is increasingly having an impact far beyond Bavaria's borders: "With this successful transfer of knowledge, we enrich our international university exchange and at the same time have an impact on society."

Foto © Julia Dragan / University of Regensburg

Meanwhile, Anita Schilcher and her team have initiated another project, FiSBY (Fachintegrierte Schreibförderung Bayern), which aims to promote genre-specific and interdisciplinary writing at elementary school level and to enhance the spelling performance of schoolchildren. After the completion of FiLBY, FiSBY will probably also be tested in Norway.

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