News
Publication of the Puzzle and Colouring Book for the Lecture Psychology in Social Work
In February 2026, the book "Psychologie in der Sozialen Arbeit - Das Rätsel- und Ausmalbuch" was published on the OPUS server of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. This is an invitation to understand learning not only as a performance requirement, but also as a creative and self-caring process. Vanessa Kronenbach, a former tutor and graduate of the bachelor's degree programme in Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, explains the reasons behind the creation of the work accompanying Prof Dr Karsten Krauskopf's lecture.
The cumulative format of the Psychology in Social Work lecture by Prof Dr Karsten Krauskopf invites students to adopt a different perspective on teaching and learning, which is already familiar to students in the higher semesters from the Theories of Social Work lecture by Prof Dr Frank Früchtel.
Instead of a written exam at the end of the semester, Social Work students have the opportunity to take their exams in the form of weekly tests and assignments. Completing the tasks on a weekly basis requires continuous engagement with the course content and saves first-year students the stress of the exam, which usually begins two weeks before the exam date. Vanessa Kronenbach, a graduate of the bachelor's degree programme in Social Work and tutor for three years, explains:
"As a tutor, I was allowed to accompany this lecture format for three years. In all three years, I was able to observe how the familiar stress at the end of the semester seemed to shift to the beginning of the semester. Most students were not yet familiar with the possibility of choosing freely between tasks and continuously collecting points for the overall grade. The freedom to deliberately not complete assignments was particularly unusual. Even after several arithmetical explanations, in which it should become clear that not all tasks had to be completed for the top grade or to pass, it was difficult for the students to let go of their desire for completeness and thus reduce their stress. Fortunately, this usually seemed to subside after the first three weeks, and an appreciation of the exam format set in by the time exam week came around. Nevertheless, I wanted to offer the students something that would not only allow them to engage with the course content in a low-threshold way, but also to briefly forget about their everyday lives and switch off. After it became clear to me that teaching does not have to be limited to the framework of a classic, frontal lecture or seminar, I developed the puzzle and colouring book for the lecture. Last but not least, I also wanted to show my appreciation for the many years of collaboration during the lecture, which had a formative influence on me.
The puzzle book for the psychology lecture accompanies the students from week to week and from topic to topic. There is a double page for each subject area, consisting of a puzzle page and a colouring page. The puzzle page invites students to work through the lecture content in a low-threshold and playful way - without the aim of working towards points or a grade. The colouring page, designed to match the topics, also offers a brief moment to take a deep breath and take care of yourself, whereby the transfer performance should not be underestimated here either, when the question arises as to what a billy goat has to do with social psychology or what a fish pond has to do with educational psychology.
Have fun puzzling, pondering and relaxing!"
The booklet accompanying the lecture "Psychology in Social Work - The Puzzle and Colouring Book" can be downloaded from the OPUS Server of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
