Abstract:

In 2018, a new version of the Lifelong Learning Competences was published by the European Parliament (EU). One of the eight key competences is entrepreneurship, which should be integrated into all levels of education. While studying for a subject teacher (biology teacher) in the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, students did not have specific lectures on entrepreneurship, but in the spring of 2020, just as the Covid 19 pandemic began, 3rd and 4th year students had a 14-day pedagogical practice in lower secondary and high school. For successful implementation of 14-day educational practice, they had to be entrepreneurial. No one was not prepared for distance education and each of them had to improvise a situation, called "emergency distance education" (Hodges et al., 2020). They focused on the use of ICT (information and communication technology) in distance education (Kovacs et al., 2021) using most of the components of entrepreneurship such as: critical thinking, analytical skills, creativity, problem solving, identifying opportunities. In the process of developing digital skills, they should also pre-service teachers develop entrepreneurial thinking (e.g., how to access a computer application or program, how to test students' knowledge, etc.).

This paper present a SWOT analysis of the implementation of pedagogical practice in lower and upper secondary schools in online distance education, at Covid-19. The key competencies (entrepreneurship, digital literacy) developed in distance education, the experience gained, the usefulness of ICTs, which ICTs are useful in distance education, and the personal feelings of the pre-service biology teachers before and after the 14-days pedagogical practice are highlighted. Most of the pre-service biology teachers describe the experience as good, exceptional and something quite different from their initial expectations. The pre-service biology teachers are grateful for the new knowledge about computer applications, which are very useful for distance biology teaching (Powtoon, Filmora, Audacity, Quizlet, Zygote body, Moodle, Padlet, etc.), in which they had to invest a lot of knowledge and time (Špernjak, 2021). The main disadvantage of distance learning is the lack of direct contact with students and the time delay, as they spend 3 to 5 times more time preparing materials for distance learning than for the performances in a school setting. In this paper, I would also like to present the development of entrepreneurship in the 14-day pedagogical practice, although pre-service teachers were not aware of this development.

References:
[1] Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T. & Bond, A. (2020, March 27). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning
[2] Kovacs, H., Pulfrey, C., and Monnier, E.C. (2021). Surviving but not thriving: Comparing primary, vocational and higher education teachers’ experiences during the COVID‑19 lockdown. Education and Information Technologies, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10616-x
[3] Špernjak, A. (2021). Using ICT to teach effectively at COVID-19. In: Skala, K. (Ed.). Croatian Society for Information, Communication and Electronic Technology - MIPRO, Opatija, Croatia, pp. 669-672.

Keywords:

Digital competences, Entrepreneurship, Pedagogical pratice.