Lower Secondary School Teacher Training in Czech Language and Literature

The aim of the Master's degree Lower Secondary School Teacher Training in Czech Language and Literature is to prepare a fully qualified teacher in the subjects of Czech language and literature (in a combination of two qualified subjects), who can work primarily in lower secondary school. The aim of the studies is to deepen the field knowledge and skills in crucial disciplines of contemporary Czech language, literary history and literary science gained in the undergraduate studies, and to extend the basic knowledge and skills with special disciplines (onomastics, dialectology, literary criticism and textology etc.).

An integral part of the studies is also to develop knowledge and skills in field didactics of the Czech language and literature via basic and special subjects (alternative methods of Czech language teaching, etc.).

The structure of the field enables students to combine the acquired knowledge and skills in linguistics and literary science with skills in didactics and use them together with knowledge in pedagogical, psychological and other disciplines when interpreting fictional and educative texts, developing oral and written discourse, and primarily when teaching the Czech language. During the studies, the skills of reflection on the teaching process are developed for the appropriate types and levels of education and skills of self-reflection on the role of the teacher.

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/clients, colleagues in the workplace, with parents of pupils/clients 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:

• use knowledge of standard Czech, its codification and stylistic differentiation while creating oral and written discourse, doing linguistic proofreading and an arrangement of stylization of a text;
• apply acquired theoretical knowledge in teaching Czech language and literature at primary school, and combine them with skills in didactics to develop pupils’ key skills defined by the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education;
• develop the abilities of primary school pupils to do linguistic and stylistic analysis of a text and to do interpretation of a literary text; lead pupils to work creatively with texts of fiction;
• communicate in a cultivated way, develop pupils’ communication competency, i.e. teach them to formulate their ideas and opinions in logical sequence, clearly, distinctly, correctly, and to cultivate pupils’ relationship with the mother tongue;
• read aloud and recite in a cultivated way and lead pupils to do these literary activities;
• develop pupils' reading and encourage them to read valuable literary works, strengthen the relationship to cultural values via literature;
• monitor new expert literature, look up information individually and be knowledgeable in new information sources and use these sources critically at school;
• qualifications by attending courses of lifelong learning, expert presentations and seminars, etc.
• 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;
• use basic methods and tools of pedagogical diagnostics in teaching and gain data which is available for the support of an individual pupil/client. The results can be communicated appropriately to pupils, teachers, and possibly parents;
• describe and individually explain specific learning processes with a specific example from their portfolio;
• 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 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.

Characteristics of professions and institutions where the acquired education can be used:

- teacher of Czech language and literature at lower secondary school

- instructor at education centres;

- instructor at free-time centres;

- employee at cultural institutions requiring education in the Czech language and literature (linguistic consultant on radio and TV, theatres, specialist in literary archives, etc.);

- editor or proofreader.

There is the possibility of extending skills to other professions within the field (work at specialized scientific institutions, libraries etc.).

• 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. In the follow-up master's programmes, these are the subjects Teaching Practice 1 (1st semester), Teaching Practice 2 (2nd semester) and Teaching Practice 3 (3rd semester). In total, this makes up 280 hours (double-subject programme), followed by Seminar on Teaching Practice. Students enrol in the Seminar on Teaching Practice 1 twice during their studies (in the first and second semesters). 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 of tze Czech language and literature or of didactics 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 of Czech language and literature the are given by the directive 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 in further studies in a doctoral study programme.

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.