Meeting with foreign experts at the Faculty of Education, JU

From June 11 to 17, 2023, an educational and training mobility of experts from universities in Armenia and Uzbekistan took place as part of the Erasmus+ Credit Mobility project. As part of the internship, an international panel was held, where the dean of the Faculty of Education, JU doc. Dr. Helena Koldová, Ph.D., members of the faculty management, representatives of the Departments of pedagogy, primary and pre-primary pedagogy, and the Department of mathematics, colleagues shared their approaches and experiences with the preparation of future teachers and the organization of pedagogical practices.

The Armenian Brusov State University, with which the faculty has been cooperating since 2018, was represented by members of the Department of Pedagogy and Didactics of Foreign Languages. Colleagues Sinarush Ghazaryan, Tatevik Soghikyan and Marus Mkrtchyan focused on the language training of future teachers in their messages. At the university, where more than twenty foreign languages are taught, the dominant theme of further cooperation is the preparation of teachers to communicate with pupils with a different mother tongue. In their research, the results of which were presented by colleagues, they also showed interesting questions about the preparation of teachers who study two foreign languages in their approval. For the preparation of the so-called professional study programs at the University of South Bohemia, the experiences of the colleagues with the so-called clinical semester, where students of the partner university spend a long time on practice and at the faculty reflect on the situations that practice brings, were interesting. The final common theme identified by the project was the development of the comeniological tradition, which is very long and deep in Armenia. Comenius' work is part of the curriculum of teacher programs, the legacy of J. A. Comenius is studied, and there is great interest in joint research and publication activities in this area.

Uzbek higher education was represented by representatives of Karshi State University. This is a university with which the faculty has been cooperating since 2019, but due to the covid situation, the personal meeting took place now. The university is one of the country's leading universities and is included in the list of the 1000 most successful universities in the world. The school was represented at the meeting by the dean of the Faculty of International Studies, prof. Nasiba Azizova and doc. Gulbachor Erkayeva. The dean extensively characterized the situation of universities and the education system in Uzbekistan. Among other things, it is typical for him to systematically search for talented students from diverse social backgrounds and educate them in elite, so-called presidential schools. Here, pupils are intensively prepared in English and oriented towards studying at foreign universities. In this regard, it was interesting to perceive the discussion about equal opportunities and inclusive education and about work with talented pupils, which is also discussed in the Czech Republic as one of the current tasks of regional education. Doc. Erkayeva spoke about the internship system at Uzbek universities, which, according to the 4+2 model, is implemented in all study programs in such a way that from the second to the fourth year, students spend two days doing practical internships and four days are devoted to theoretical teaching at the faculties. The rapporteur named the advantages of the system (connecting university students with internships and students with labor market actors), but also disadvantages (difficult quality control of internships that students can carry out in their place of residence and unresolved motivation of school teachers who should mentor students during internships). Experience with practices can be a starting point for further cooperation. The partners are also interested in the joint education of kindergarten teachers. The Rector of Karshi State University will visit the University of South Bohemia in mid-July and will discuss the expansion of cooperation to other areas, including the exchange of student interns.

Cooperation with universities in Armenia and Uzbekistan is proving to be very intensive. The partners are interested in very active cooperation and bring topics that are just as relevant in the preparation of future teachers both in their countries and here. If we add to this the cordial and friendly climate typical of Armenia and Uzbekistan and the good name of the Czech Republic, an excellent constellation for long-term cooperation is created.