Lower Secondary School Teacher Training in Czech Language and Literature for Pupils with a Different Mother Tongue

The main purpose of education in the field of Teaching Czech Language and Literature with a focus on pupils with a different mother tongue is to prepare a fully qualified teacher that will have all the necessary knowledge and skills in the field of Czech language and literature and its didactics as well as specialized professional competency for teaching foreign pupils, or pupils with a different mother tongue. The content of this study programme includes not only all of the ordinary disciplines involved in the study programme of Czech language and literature for primary schools (eg. Stylistics in theory and practice, Development of standard Czech, World literature in the 20th century) but also specialized linguistics (e.g. Czech phonetics for foreigners, Spoken Czech) as well as literary disciplines that focus on Czech literature in various contexts (e.g. Comparative literature, Literature in the context of religion) and its reception in a foreign language environment. Both linguistic and literary disciplines aim to promote understanding of language and literature as a means leading to the development of communicative and other competencies and to the development of positive relations to the cultural heritage.

Professional didactics is represented by several subjects that deal not only with teaching the Czech language and literature education for pupils with a different mother tongue, but also with appropriate methods of testing and using alternative teaching methods. Didactic disciplines are also designed to develop teachers' ability to teach in multilingual and multicultural classes.

Pedagogical and psychological constituent part of the study

Through studying for the Master’s degree graduates gain the necessary competences that allow them to critically apply the use of their pedagogical and psychological knowledge in practice as a teacher at a primary or secondary school. Graduates are fully qualified to pursue the profession of a teacher. They are ready to base their professional conduct on well-structured knowledge and skills from their fields of approbation (content knowledge). The effectiveness of their professional conduct is conditioned by their subject-didactic (pedagogical content knowledge) and broader pedagogical and psychological knowledge and skills (knowledge of the broader background of education, knowledge of educational practices, knowledge about people involved in education, etc.).

The degree develops students’ analytical and comparative skills, which enable them to understand the diverse pedagogical reality and to use subject-specific, pedagogical, and psychological publications in their work for planning, implementing and reflecting on educational activities. They develop communication skills important for communication and collaboration with pupils, colleagues in the workplace, with parents of pupils and with practitioners. An important benefit of the degree is the development of self-reflective skills that provide space for the development of attitudes towards one another, to educated individuals and to the profession: perception of the responsibility of the teaching profession, the acceptance of the moral obligations of a helping profession and its ethics.

The studies emphasise the principle of interdisciplinarity (interconnection of some pedagogical and psychological subjects) and the principle of sequence and gradation of themes and courses, from the more general to the more specific. The concept is also characterized by the interdependence of theory and practice. An important part of the concept is the reflective teaching practice. The principles of reflection on teaching practice and self-reflection are related both to practice and to other experience-oriented subjects. An important part of the concept is also the promotion of inclusion, which is perceived as a cross-curricular theme (also supported by a separate course).

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• prove active deep professional knowledge of the branch and didactic disciplines in the field of Czech language and literature;
• explain the specificity of theoretical and methodological attitudes to the issue of education of pupils with a different mother tongue in the process of teaching of Czech language and literature;
• be familiar with the current educational concepts and methods of teaching of ČJL; apply the acquired knowledge and skills in teaching ČJL in primary and lower sec. schools in compliance with didactic knowledge with the aim to develop key competences;
• communicate in an cultivated way, create and develop pupils' communication skills, cultivate a relationship with their mother tongue;
• independently plan, organize and carry out direct educational activity in the process of teaching of Czech language and literature in multicultural classes;
• use various methods of testing and evaluation of people with a different mother tongue (CEFRL), communicate with students with a different mother tongue as well as with their parents or other participants in the ed. process;
• explain the development of language phenomena and understand the current state of language as a result of language development, apply both linguistic and literary theoretical knowledge in its own speech production;
• develop pupils' readership, motivate them to read valuable literature, and thereby strengthen shared ethical values and cultural mutuality;
• plan, implement and reflect on their own teaching at the appropriate level of established professional competences;
• use basic professional terminology and information sources of pedagogical and school psychology in describing, analysing, interpreting and evaluating typical teaching situations, as well as describing the educational environment of the school;
• use basic methods and tools of pedagogical diagnostics in teaching and gain data which is available for the support of an individual pupil; the results can be communicated appropriately to pupils, teachers, and possibly parents and professionals;
• to explain and to reflect on the principles of inclusive education at the level of culture, politics and practice of the school in their educational activities;
• to reflect on the experience of their own teaching practice in the professional community and to use reflection and self-reflection as a tool of professional learning, to critically evaluate their own attitudes towards education;
• describe and individually explain specific learning processes with a specific example from their portfolio.

The graduates of this study programme are fully qualified for direct pedagogical work as a teacher (or teaching assistant) of Czech language and literature in primary and lower secondary schools or at a corresponding stage of grammar schools with specialized qualification for teaching pupils with a different mother tongue. These competencies are also fully relevant for the work of a qualified teacher in language schools offering courses of Czech to foreigners; an instructor or skilled worker in centres for supporting the integration of foreigners; a teacher in centres for ethnic groups or in Czech teaching positions abroad as well as for work as an instructor in free-time or educational centres.

• Teacher of the second level of primary school

The teaching practice is conceived as a coherent and gradated system with an emphasis on interconnection with theory and reflection and self-reflection of the student as a teacher.

The aim of the teaching practice is to acquire the professional competences necessary in the daily work of the teacher, to become acquainted with the roles which the teacher enters into in their work, to realize their own professional needs and to gradually take responsibility for the planning, implementation and evaluation of lessons. Throughout the teaching practice, students get a real idea of what a teacher's everyday work involves.

The teaching practice forms a coherent system of consecutive subjects. The aim of the reflection is to provide students with a space for sharing and reflecting on experiences from their own teaching practice and helping them to deepen their reflective and self-reflective skills.

The system of teaching practice is regularly evaluated both through open and closed questions, both by students and the mentor teachers. The reflective seminars are also evaluated.

The processing of the themes of linguistics, literary theory, literary history or of the Czech language or literary didactics are the goals of the master thesis in the study programme. There are preferred:

– the themes that have not been worked out or the themes that are worked out by a new way (method);

– the themes applying new linguistic, literary or didactic/pedagogical methods when being worked out texts that have not been analysed or when being worked out new data of the school practice.

That is presupposed that the students prove when creating the thesis:

– the ability to create professional text that is written in standard Czech respecting the norms of the professional texts and the contemporary orthographical norms;

– the ability to compile the list of the secondary literature of the theme and to choose the knowledge of the literature taking a critical hard look;

– the ability to choose appropriate methodology when cooperate with the tutor: (a) to the language analysis of the texts, to the literary analysis of the texts or to the data collecting and classification (i.e. the data of the language/speech, literature or of the empirical didactic research);

– the ability to evaluate and adequately work out the collected data or the results of the language analysis of the texts or of the analysis of the literary text.

The principles of the creating and the evaluation and marking of the thesis are given by the directives Pokynem děkana č. 1/2015 k realizaci závěrečných prací, see https://is.muni.cz/auth/do/ped/VPAN/pokdek/pokyn_dekana_1_2015.pdf and Standard pro realizaci závěrečných prací z českého jazyka a z české literatury na katedře českého jazyka a literatury PdF MU, see https://is.muni.cz/auth/do/ped/dekanat/ved/2016/standardy/ode/final/.

The final work of the pedagogic or psychology demonstrates the student's ability to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during the course of study in working on a specific professional-pedagogical problem. The type of final thesis corresponds to the content and level of the given degree of study. The student chooses from the following types of works: a) theoretical-applied, b) theoretical-empirical (research), c) theoretical. The types of work and recommendations for their implementation are further guided by the APA manual. The length of the final thesis ranges from 117,000 to 200,000 characters, including gaps, i.e. 65-80 standard pages.

The standards for the implementation of the final theses at different departments are in accordance with the Dean's Instructions No. 1/2015 on implementation of the final work (Bachelor's, Master’s, post-graduate non-PhD and final works for Life-long Education) in the version effective from 1.11.2015.

The thesis follows the following goals based on the profile of the graduate of the Faculty of Education of MU. Students:

– demonstrate an awareness of the current issues of their field of study, they can clearly and comprehensibly define the topic of the final thesis and its objectives, describe the initial state of knowledge and propose appropriate methods of achieving their stated goals;

– work with appropriate primary and secondary sources of information, cite them according to a valid standard (APA) and in accordance with the ethics of academic work;

– through the creation of their own text they demonstrate stylistic competence, and the ability to create an academic text;

– demonstrate the ability to ask questions and solve problems, to formulate new ideas and conclusions that bring at least some new knowledge about the phenomenon being studied, or enrich the methodological (in the area of research) or methodical (in the area of education) procedures in relation to clearly defined target groups (pupils at primary and secondary school, groups with specific educational needs, etc.).

After completion of the Master's studies, it is possible to continue further studies in the doctoral study programme "Linguistic and literary communication" which is also available at the Faculty of Education (full-time or distant form of studies). Graduates can attend a two-semester-long study of the Czech language and literature for secondary schools that is implemented as a course of lifelong learning by the Department of Czech Language and Literature of the Faculty of Education to gain a qualification to be a secondary school teacher of the Czech language and literature.