Natural Science for Education

* Establish skills and attitudes leading to further higher education of biological and geological disciplines and lifelong STEM education;

* the ability to reflect the process of education and training in nature-oriented institutions;

* Self-reflection skill as a naturalist lecturer.

The graduate of the study program Nature Science with a focus on education is a qualified professional ready to practice as a teacher assistant who during the bachelor study gained the corresponding professional competencies that we perceive as a set of professional knowledge, skills, attitudes, experience, values and personality characteristics that are manifested in selected professional activities.

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); 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).

Upon successful completion of the programme, the graduate is able to:

• further develop professional knowledge;
• use the correct professional biological terminology;
• create positive attitudes towards expertise;
• generate and defend their professional decisions and to bear full responsibility for them;
• positive self-realization, self-education, self-education and self-reflection;
• think critically about the use of pedagogical and psychological knowledge in the practice of a teaching assistant or other pedagogical worker, read familiar pedagogical and psychological texts for educators and understand them creatively;
• cooperate with various teachers at school and under their leadership to plan, implement and reflect on the sequence of teaching and activities in relation to the appropriate school curriculum;
• describe and analyse an educational situation using special terminology and rules of effective pedagogical communication and to propose a change; use their knowledge and skills in communication with pupils, parents, teachers in the school context;
• use self-reflective skills to reflect on their actions: for example, to better justify and evaluate their arguments, to give voice to their emotions and their connection to some behaviour or to critically review their own attitudes towards education;
• use basic methods and tools of pedagogical diagnostics to support differentiation and individualization, obtaining data for individual pupil support; communicate the results appropriately to pupils, teachers, parents, or other professionals;
• formulate their own concept of education they would like to implement in their future profession, supporting it with arguments from theory and practice;
• explain the basic principles of inclusive and special education; to reflect on their attitude towards diversity and its influence on their own teaching;
• explain the basic concepts of developmental and social psychology and identify possible difficulties in pupils’ social competences or school adaptation, based on knowledge of developmental and socio-psychological aspects of classroom life.

The graduate possesses a fundamental professional education with an introductory component in science didactics and is prepared to perform a bachelor-level profession or to continue in a follow-up master’s programme in Natural Sciences. In accordance with Act No. 563/2004 Coll., on Pedagogical Staff, as amended, the graduate may work as a teaching assistant, an instructor in leisure-time centres, an educator in youth homes, an educator in after-school care facilities, and in various non-governmental organisations engaged in educational activities.

• Teacher´s assistant

The system of compulsory teaching practices aims at the development of the student's professional competences and prepares him to fully master the role of teaching assistant. The goal of assistantships is to acquire the necessary skills both when working individually with a student outside of the teaching process (tutoring on the school grounds or in children's families) and when working with a teacher in the classroom during classes. The internship forms a comprehensive system of connected subjects, which are implemented from the third to the fifth semester of study. These are the subjects assistant practice, which consists of tutoring individuals (60 hours), assistant practice - teaching assistant 1 (60 hours) and teaching assistant practice - teaching assistant 2 (60 hours). In total, it is therefore 180 hours of field practice. In the third and fourth semesters, the practice is followed by the subjects self-experienced preparation for profession 1 and self-experienced preparation for profession 2, within which students of assistant practice reflect (24 hours). Their goal is to enable students to have real self-experience with selected topics (see seminar topics) of personal and professional development through experiential learning with an emphasis on reflection; encourage students to gradually take responsibility for their own learning process (self-directed learning); enable students to realize and possibly revise their attitudes towards their future profession. The practice system is regularly evaluated, both by using closed and open questions, by students and accompanying teachers. Reflective seminars are also evaluated.

A graduate of a Bachelor's degree program may, after fulfilling the conditions of admission, continue in any follow-up Master's study at the Faculty of Education.