Educational Sciences

Deadline for submitting applications: August 1 - November 30

Deadline for submitting documents for the admission procedure: December 15

Documents for the admission procedure:

• signed CV;
• list of publishing activities ;
• doctoral thesis project.

  Documents for the admission procedure must be inserted into the e-application (rubric “Documents”) by 15 December. Applicants are required to include their full name and application number on all attached documents.

  Recommendation: Applicants are advised to contact a potential supervisor before submitting their application in order to consult the research focus and its possible guidance (an external supervisor is also possible).

  The entrance examination takes the form of an oral discussion over the doctoral thesis project.

  Notice: A poof of completion of a Master’s degree programme (officially certified copy of the diploma, in the case of education obtained abroad also the so-called recognition) shall be submitted by the accepted applicants upon enrolment in the studies. For the entrance examination, a proof of completion of a Master’s degree programme is not required.

The admission procedure consists of two rounds. In the first round, the committee evaluates the written documents submitted by the applicant. If the applicant receives 70 points, the committee proposes admission; if they get less than 40 points, the committee proposes non-admission, if they get 41-69, they advance to the second round. In the second round, the committee evaluates the professional readiness and motivation of the applicant through an interview. If the applicant receives 30 points or more, the committee proposes admission; if they get less than 30 points, the committee proposes non-admission.

The aim of the doctoral studies program is to provide a scientific education in the fields of education and andragogy. A graduate with a doctoral degree in the educational sciences program is ready for highly professional scientific research activity in the field of education. Graduates possess the knowledge and skills of basic and advanced teaching disciplines, the methodology of educational research, the design and execution of empirical research and the evaluation of its results, and the ability to disseminate research results to the professional community and collaborate with experts from other universities at national and international levels.

For continuing scientific careers, long-term foreign experience in postdoctoral positions is actively promoted for graduates.

Main research topics:

- Distributed leadership in schools

- Adult education in the world (comparative study)

- School climates through pupils’ eyes

- Communication between pupils in group classes

- Digital technologies in formal and informal learning (life) for children, young people, and adults (digital technologies in school, family, work; digital technologies as part of normal day-to-day activities in different contexts and environments including virtual environments)

- Informal learning for school leaders

- The role of pupils’ language equipment in their involvement in teaching communication

- Arguments in dialogic teaching

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

• - equipped with a deep knowledge of the theories of educational science with support for Czech and foreign literature;
• - plan, implement, and analyze empirical investigations of a qualitative and quantitative nature;
• - write high-quality technical texts published on the international science scene;
• - work in the Czech and international community with leading scientific experts and their teams.

Successful graduates are able to pursue separate and highly professional scientific research activities in the field of teaching, to design and implement pedagogical research and to evacuate its results, to convey the results of their research to the professional community, and to collaborate with experts from other places of work at national and international levels.

The graduates of our doctoral studies program are very well prepared for scientific work, as evidenced by the fact that they are successfully hired at many Czech universities and continue to work in the field. Our graduates are employed by the Technical University of Ostrava, the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University, the University of Pardubice, Mendel University in Brno, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, the University of Hradec Králové, the Global School of Science in Nepal, the Royal University of Bhutan, and Comenius University in Bratislava. A detailed list of graduates is available here: https://pedagogika.phil.muni.cz/pro-applicants/doctoral-studies/pedagogy/graduates.

Doctoral student practice takes four forms: (A) doctoral students are involved in empirical research conducted in the workplace, resulting in the acquisition of methodological skills from senior academic staff directly in the conduct of the research; (B) students learn to write professional articles using their own empirical data in the course of the Copyright Workshop; (C) in the context of a foreign study semester placement, students attend prestigious universities and adopt new methods of data analysis; (D) doctoral students gain practical teaching experience in their trainers’ courses, tandem classes, and courses of the Pedagogical Competence Development Centre (CERPEK).

In their dissertations, students present the original results of their work, which they produced during their studies in the doctoral program. A body of at least three high-quality texts published in prestigious scientific journals can also be recognized as a dissertation, and the student provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject and commentary. The dissertation is written in Czech, Slovak, or English. The dissertation work is always submitted electronically through IS MU and in three printed copies. The recommended minimum number of characters in the thesis is 144,000 (including spaces). All references to literature must meet APA standards, and work must follow the ethical rules of empirical research.