If you talk to Niall Palfreyman about his work, it's about fundamentals because he thinks things through to their roots. "Learning is a joint process between teachers and students," says the professor of Bioprocess Informatics. Managing this process as well as possible is close to the English-born professor's heart - and not just since he came to HSWT in the winter semester of 2000. At that time, he was one of the professors hired for the newly introduced Bachelor's degree programme in Bioinformatics.

Learning is life

During his studies, he was already concerned not only with the content itself but also with how to teach and learn it, taking courses in mathematical physics as well as the psychology of learning. The combination of theoretical considerations and practical application in teaching was also what attracted him to the HSWT, as well as the practical relevance. So, he switched from his job as a Software Developer to university teaching and research.

For a long time, Niall Palfreyman was a didactics mentor - and for years - he has been particularly committed to bringing young people closer to the STEM subjects, for example, as part of the Children's University. "Learning is what distinguishes life from non-life," he says. On the one hand, only living organisms have the ability not only to solve problems but also to ask questions of their environment in their own interest. For another, learning fills life. What is needed for this? "Fun and curiosity, no one can learn without that," answers Niall Palfreyman. However, he does not expect students and pupils to have an inexhaustible supply of it. But he emphasises: "It is explicitly the responsibility of us teachers to awaken and maintain this in the learners: The curiosity for a subject area and the fun in it." Since STEM subjects fill many with anxious respect, this is especially important in these subject areas, for example, to prevent disproportionately high dropout rates.

The essence of teaching

And what makes for good teaching? "The realisation that teaching is radically impossible," emphasises the 63-year-old. "People and other living beings are not passive recipients of the world around them but create it through their actions. You can't 'give' knowledge to anyone - he or she has to construct it themselves." If, for example, as a teacher, you assume that you have explained a topic in enough detail, but the students do poorly in the exam, this is because the explanations were interpreted differently than intended, he said. "It's not the fault of one side or the other," says Palfreyman, "but, in the joint process, something didn't go as expected."

Professors and teachers often find it difficult to talk about the quality of their teaching. "Anyone who teaches is vulnerable," says Niall Palfreyman. "Because when you teach, you're making personal contracts with your learners daily, so to speak: You show them your passion for a subject and hope for the same from them."

Another challenge in dealing with teaching and its optimisation is the relatively widespread misconception that only teaching benefits from research and not oppositely. "Yet," says Palfreyman, "the need to present complex issues in an understandable way in teaching bears enormous fruit for research: you can explore a topic more precisely if you can present it coherently to others because that also orders your thinking."

Understanding grows from experience

What he particularly likes about working with students is the idea exchange with young people about a subject that fascinates him, namely mathematics. And: "I appreciate seeing what kind of energy the students have and how undisguised their emotions sometimes are, both positive and negative. I also love how much mutual understanding and respect they show each other."

To maintain the ability to put himself in the perspective of others, especially his students, the father of two adult children deliberately keeps his memories alive. "I was also once the nervous examinee, certainly also once the exhausting know-it-all," he says. "Instead of pushing those memories away from me to forget them, I use them to treat others with more understanding."

Admittedly, he is also a learner in many aspects. For example, when he continues to improve his playing of the guitar. The Freisinger, by choice, is part of the Irish folk band "Riverrun". Connected to this is also an event that Niall Palfreyman particularly remembers from his more than two decades at the HSWT: the performance in Freising's Asam Hall on the 40th anniversary of the University of Applied Sciences in 2001. At that time, no pandemic had put a spanner in the event planning. "My friends Robert and Brigitte and I performed as the "Green Peas" and performed rock songs from the HSWT founding year 1971. Professor Frank Leßke also sang with us briefly on stage. It was a very nice project and is a precious memory of Robert, who has sadly passed away since."

Anyone who would like to experience Riverrun live can do so - Corona regulations permitting - every third Monday of the month at the Irish ceilidh dance in Freising's St. Lantpert parish hall.