Natural Science for Education

• to develop occupational knowledge and skills (with an emphasis on both inanimate nature and botanical-zoological-ecological and anthropological focus) that graduates can use in practice, especially in the next follow-up master's degree program;
• 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).

Nature is part of human history

Practical training

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.

Further information

https://www.muni.cz/o-univerzite/fakulty-a-pracoviste/pedagogicka-fakulta/412300-katbiologie

http://www.ped.muni.cz/wbio

The graduate has a basic vocational education with an initial natural-science component and is ready to undertake a bachelor's degree or a follow-up master's study in the field of Natural Sciences. Under Section 20 of Act No. 563/2004 Coll., on Pedagogical Workers as amended, the graduate can work as an assistant teacher, an instructor in leisure time centers, as a teacher in youth homes, a teacher in cohorts, in various civic associations engaged in pedagogical activities.

No information available

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Minimum score and numbers of accepted applicants in past years

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.