Abstract:

The article focuses on changes in the specialized higher education of teacher training in the bachelor study programme Teacher Training in Practical Teaching and Vocational Training. This study is focused on preparing teachers of practical teaching for teaching at secondary vocational schools in the Czech Republic, in accordance with the Act on Pedagogical Staff, which codifies the basic conditions for graduate destinations in the Czech Republic. Relatively substantial changes in higher education are currently taking place in the Czech Republic due to the amendment to the Higher Education Act and there is a change in the process of accreditation of all higher education programmes, including the so-called institutional accreditations. These changes can also be taken as a stimulus for new perspectives on the training of higher education graduates in their professional experience. The article presents the basic attributes of these changes, which fundamentally modernize their preparation for destinations in the fields of education providing secondary education with the vocational certificate and the secondary school-leaving exam (the ‘maturita’ exam). In brief, the graduate will have the necessary knowledge and skills to work as a teacher of practical teaching and vocational subjects focused on either trade and services or engineering (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, technology) at the professional and didactic level. The emphasis should be placed on didactics and thorough pedagogical-psychological preparation. The problems related to the specializations should be addressed in the didactics of vocational subjects. The knowledge, skills and attitudes gained during the study form the basis of the competences for practicing the teaching of practical teaching and vocational training. However, these competences also give full qualification for working in institutions involved in the relevant field of education (training courses, retraining, professional qualification, further education, etc.), also as a teacher of vocational and leisure time education in various educational institutions and in corporate education, etc.

Keywords:

Teaching, Change in curriculum, Competence, Didactics, Pedagogy, Practical teaching, Vocational training, Teacher training, Higher education study.