Contact person:

Jan Petr, PhD
janpetr@pf.jcu.cz
Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia

 

Information about the project

The project was aimed on the quality improvement of teacher education via exchange of experience in the domain of biology didactics and comparison of educational approaches in the Czech Republic and Norway. The project was realized using short (oneweek) stay of four Czech teacher educators in Norway (NTNU) and short stay of two university teachers from Norway in the Czech Republic at University of South Bohemia (JU).

The beneficiary was Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia and it was supported by Norway grants. The Department of Biology prepares future biology teachers of all school levels for their teaching career. Graduates are awarded with a bachelor degree (BSc.) and can work either in science and environmental education centres or, after completion of concurring master degree (MSc.), as teachers at any of the national schools. Our Department also offers Ph.D. degree course in biology education.

Number of the programme	Name of the programme	Grant mechanism
CZ07	Bilateral scholarship cooperation	Norway grants

 

Realisation of the project

Department of Biology at Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia in České Budejovice, obtained financial support from Norway grants in 2016. The project is mainly focused on experience exchange between partners. Department of Biology, which is oriented on teacher preparation in biology and biology didactics for future teachers at primary and secondary schools, contacted the NTNU's Resource Centre for STEM-education or Skolelaboratoriet in Trondheim. The centre deals with lifelong learning in science and creates educational programmes for various school levels. It produces and tests school aids and participates on research and educational projects focused on science teaching at schools. This project was established on the basis of previous contacts established during the cooperation within the international project S-TEAM focused on improving of science education in European countries.

The project was started by seminar at the Department ob Biology with next programme:

1. Aims of the project
2. Impact of the project on innovation in teacher preparation
3. Possibilities of next collaboration
4. Information about travel
5. Information about NTNU

Four teachers from the Department of Biology, Jan Petr, PhD, profesor Miroslav Papáček, Renata Ryplová, PhD and associated professor Radka Závodská visited NTNU in April 2016. They could get acquainted with the work of Resource Centre, participate in lifelong learning and get to know educational projects for schools (e.g. the Bumblebee project, Science trails etc.)

Two teachers from NTNU - Eli Munkebye and Maren Skjelstad Fredagsvik visited the University of South Bohemia in June 2016. They familiarized with teacher education during field practice in ecology, tasks oriented on plant physiology and education of prospective teachers at elementary level.

The additional programme for visitors was prepared by both partners. They could make excursions focused on interesting historical or natural places in the region.

Second seminar was held in the end of the project.

1. Fulfilment of aims
2. Implementation of the project in teacher education
3. Next possibilities for cooperation in teacher preparation and educational research.

 

Conclusion:

This project has created convenient conditions for future collaboration and partnership realized for example in the form of pedagogical or research projects focused on science education. Moreover, there was an impact at the personal level too. The workers from both institutions had possibility to meet the colleagues with the same interests in the field of science education.

Some personal experience and interests from the stay at NTNU were published in the university journal:
http://www.jcu.cz/o-univerzite/media-a-propagace/univerzitni-casopis/cislo-16-2016