Lower Secondary School Teacher Training in Health Education

Through studying for the Master’s degree graduates gain the necessary competences that allow them to critically apply the use of their pedagogical and psychological knowledge in practice as a teacher at a primary or secondary school. Graduates are fully qualified to pursue the profession of a teacher. They are ready to base their professional conduct on well-structured knowledge and skills from their fields of approbation (content knowledge). The effectiveness of their professional conduct is conditioned by their subject-didactic (pedagogical content knowledge) and broader pedagogical and psychological knowledge and skills (knowledge of the broader background of education, knowledge of educational practices, knowledge about people involved in education, etc.).

““Health is not everything, but without health, everything else is nothing.” (Halfdan Mahler)”

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.

Practical training

An integrated component of the programme includes reflected teaching practice. The system of teaching practice is designed to develop the students’ professional competences. In this way the students become fully competent teachers. The teaching practice in the Master’s degree is in addition to the training undertaken in the Bachelor’s degree aimed at the role of a teacher assistant. At the end of the teaching practice in the Master’s degree, the students will be capable of independent teaching and will become beginning teachers who will develop their competences by means of further education.

Further information

Any questions to be resolved at the Department of Physical and Health Education, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, Poříčí 31, on the open day or during the office hours of the study guarantor.

The knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired during the studies form the basis of professional skills. By completing the Master’s degree the graduate will gain the necessary teaching competences pursuant to Section 20 of Act No. 563/2004 Coll., on educational staff as amended. Moreover, the graduate will be qualified to work in other (for example free-time) institutions. The graduate will be capable of professional conduct based on well-structured knowledge and skills in the field of health education. The effectiveness of the graduate’s professional conduct is subject to didactic knowledge of the curriculum of health education in primary and lower secondary schools and general educational and psychological knowledge and skills (general knowledge of educational roots, knowledge of educational practices, knowledge of the participants in the educational process, etc.)

No information available

---

Minimum score and numbers of accepted applicants in past years

Graduates from the Master’s degree of Health Education may (subject to accession criteria) continue in the doctoral study programme Pedagogy.