Lower Secondary School Teacher Training in Health Education

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) and 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).

The objective of the two-year Master’s degree is to prepare primary and lower secondary school teachers of the general educational programme of Health Education (in a combination of two program) as part of the educational area People and health (overlapping in the educational programme Health education), as defined by the Framework educational programme for elementary education. The study provides the students with integrated knowledge and skills based on Health education and related didactic skills, educational and psychological disciplines based on current research findings, reflections on the teaching process in appropriate types and stages of schools, self-reflection in the role of a teacher and acceptance of the moral obligations and ethics of the teaching profession.

The objective of the programme is to prepare graduates for the profession of a teacher of health education in primary and lower secondary schools and in the respective years of multi-year grammar schools, to develop professional skills and gain knowledge from the area of health science, the psychosocial area and related scientific disciplines, which the graduates will use in teaching or during their doctoral degree, to gain knowledge and skills related to health science in a school environment, to develop knowledge and skills related to health science for the purposes of practical applications, and to develop the basic attitudes and values of the graduates so that they become active, responsible and independent members of their professional group and society.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• apply the knowledge in various didactic situations;
• formulate research questions related to health education and its application in the teaching process; formulate hypotheses, use research techniques;
• develop their own educational project;
• evaluate the resources for use in teaching health education in schools;
• apply the competences of a teacher in teaching health education;
• demonstrate knowledge of the basic documents that govern the educational process in schools;
• apply the knowledge and skills in the capacity of a professional in health promotion and health protection in the public sector, non-profit organizations and the private sector;
• plan, implement and reflect on their own teaching at the appropriate level of established professional competences;
• use basic professional terminology and information sources of pedagogical and school psychology in describing, analysing, interpreting and evaluating typical teaching situations, as well as describing the educational environment of the school;
• use basic methods and tools of pedagogical diagnostics in teaching and gain data which is available for the support of an individual pupil/client. The results can be communicated appropriately to pupils, teachers, and possibly parents and other;
• to explain and to reflect on the principles of inclusive education at the level of culture, politics and practice of the school in their educational activities;
• to create an inclusive environment in the classroom, to apply at least some strategies of individualization and differentiation in teaching;
• describe and individually explain specific learning processes with a specific example from their portfolio;
• to reflect on the experience of their own teaching practice in the professional community and to use reflection and self-reflection as a tool of professional learning: to critically evaluate their own attitudes towards education;

• Teacher of the second level of primary school

The Master thesis shall be governed by the Study and Examination Code of MU, Dean’s Directive No. 1/2015 Execution of final theses, and Dean’s Directive No. 3/2014 Proper graduation from Bachelor, Master and Follow-up Master study programmes.

The themes of the Master theses in the area of health education and other instructions concerning the execution of the Master thesis are available on the website of the Department: http://katedry.ped.muni.cz/vychova-ke-zdravi/pro-studenty