Abstract:

The issue of pedagogy in higher education has been of interest to experts for at least several decades, and its importance is being rediscovered at certain times. Some universities then “discover” these themes and are able to mediate them as if they were a major breakthrough in the science of the past decade, while others modestly continue their years of work. Legislation, among other things, plays a role in this. For teachers in the Czech Republic - in nursery, primary, secondary schools - it is true that they cannot appear before pupils without obtaining the necessary professional qualifications, most often discharge of the necessary formal teacher education at secondary school or college. Ironically, no such legislation exists for the university environment.

College students should not be reliant on experienced experimentation from both beginning and more experienced university teachers. The lack of competence in the area in question can have a relatively large effect on students' motivation to educate, ability to recognise gifted and talented students and, last but not least, degree failures. At many universities, on the initiative of enlightened members of the leadership, it is at least recommended that there be some minimum teaching experience for higher education teachers.

At Mendel University, so-called university pedagogy has a long tradition. Courses of this type have been realised there with breaks since 1983. They focus on both theoretical and practical aspects of the university teaching profession and on the comprehensive design of teaching. Courses tend to be divided into two thematic headings – psychosocial and pedagogical-didactic, Course participants particularly value information on the organisational forms and methods used to teach them, including an overview of materially didactic means and opportunities to use information and communication technologies. The course also includes developing the psychological qualities of a university lecturer's personality, with emphasis on dealing with stress situations, coping with stress and psychohygiene.

The aim of the paper is to present the results of the evaluation of the quality of these courses and to summarise the feedback from their participants during 2014-2018. Nearly a hundred university teachers participated in the course in those years, and detailed feedback was received from them when the courses were completed. This was aimed not only at general satisfaction with the course, but also surveyed participants' motivations for learning in this area, topic preferences for further study and similar activities.

Keywords:

Teaching competences, university teachers, academic development, evaluation.