Lower Secondary School Teacher Training in Geography

The objectives of this course are to provide students with integrated knowledge and skills based on the geography field and transformed into a teaching subject through didactics, with the support of pedagogical and psychological disciplines and current research findings. This course further shapes and develops the skills of reflection regarding the teaching process in the appropriate types and levels of schools. It also supports the skill of self-reflection in the teacher's role and acceptance of the moral obligations and teaching ethics. This leads to the preparation of primary and lower secondary school teachers in general educational field of Geography (usually with a combination of another discipline) as a part of the educational area People and Nature overlapping into the educational area People and Society as it is defined in the Framework Educational Programme for Elementary Education.

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:

• Know geography as a discipline, and has an overview of the geographical curriculum which helps pupils to understand the nature of geography as a boundary discipline between physical and social sciences
• Work with methods of geographic research particularly in the area of data collection and field work, and he/she knows how to use them in teaching geography as powerful learning strategies
• Support the development of geographical thinking of pupils based on mutual communication and appropriately chosen forms and methods of teaching
• Work with methods of educational research in the field of teaching quality assessment and self-reflection as a tool for personal development
• Seek to understand the age differences among pupils and students who they are teaching, and tries to create a safe, supportive and intellectually challenging learning environment
• Plan, evaluate, generate reports and statements, react to changes in the educational system and in conformity with this activity seeks gradual professional growth and development
• Communicate not only with students but also with other participants in the educational process, i.e. with parents, colleagues, staff counselling services and other professionals and school partners
• 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/client. The results can be communicated appropriately
• 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 create an inclusive environment in the classroom, to apply at least some strategies of individualization and differentiation in teaching
• 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 critically evaluate their own attitudes towards education

The Master's degree students are trained under the programme of Primary and Lower Secondary School Teaching, or Secondary School Teaching, usually with a combination of two disciplines (e.g. Geography Teaching and Maths Teaching). Through studying the Master's programme, graduates gain the necessary competence which enables them, in accordance with Act no. 563/2004 Coll., on teachers, to work as teachers. Moreover, the graduates are qualified to work in extracurricular institutions. They are ready to establish their professional behaviour based on well-structured knowledge and skills in their disciplines.

• 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 Diploma thesis completes the corresponding stage of university education. The aim of this work is to test a student’s ability to work independently and apply knowledge acquired during university studies. It is a methodical approach, a sequence of a set of partial tasks leading from a project of the Bachelor’s thesis project through a supervisor’s tutorials to accumulating new evidence and its documenting.

Instructions for writing the Diploma thesis at the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University in Brno are adapted by Dean’s Directive No. 1/2015 the Guidelines for Writing Theses and the Standard for Writing Theses in the study programme – see https://katedry.ped.muni.cz/geografie/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2013/10/oborovy-standard_bp_dp_kge_v4.docx

Graduates of the Master's degree programme may continue in the doctoral programme Specialization in Education, Geography Didactics.