Research projects

Processes of organizational learning and their leadership and management in
schools (2010-2012)

Grant manager: Milan Pol
Project team members: Petr Novotný, Martin Sedláček, Lenka Hloušková

Czech Science Foundation, P407/10/1197

The project elaborates the subject matter of organizational learning and its leadership and management in schools. In the theoretical dimension, the project will define the theory of organizational learning in schools while in the empirical it will contribute to the understanding of the current reality of organizational learning in Czech schools, with regard to the variety of its forms and the relevance for the key process of school operation, namely teaching and pupils' learning. The opening stage is oriented on the theoretical elaboration of the subject, thus how it is defined and developed and what has so far been known about the reality of organizational learning in schools. In stage two, empirical research will be carried out in basic schools, aimed at the complete description and explanation of the processes of organizational learning. Stage three will lie in a quantitative survey focusing on the verification and quantification of results of the qualitative stage.

Studies at the Masaryk University’s Faculty of Arts in the Era of Electronic Media as Seen from the Students’ Perspective (2010)

Faculty of Arts Grant Fund

Project Manager: Jiří Zounek, Ph.D.

The aim of the proposed project is to recognize the learning process of the present student generation at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, focusing on the use of various information and communication technologies during the studies. The project will strive to identify the motives for using or non-using such means, including some specific ways of ICT usage. The research will also focus on what kind of study resources students use during their studies, which of them they prefer and why. Attention will also be paid to the question of what expectations students associate with e-learning at the Faculty of Arts. The research will not only be limited to the use of the educational systems of the faculty and the university, but it will try to discover what role is being played by the social networks, professional communities and new technologies allowing the share of the educational content on the Internet (such as research reports or studies, electronic textbooks, etc.). The project follows a research named Pedagogical and Didactic Questions of E-learning at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, carried out in 2008 (researchers J. Zounek & R. Švaříček, supported by the Faculty’s Grant Fund), mapping the usage of ICT from the perspective of teachers.

School: Research of Internal Processes and External Conditions of its Functioning (2009-2011)

Grant manager: Prof. PhDr. Milan Pol, CSc.

Czech Science Foundation, GD406/09/H040

The goal of the project proposed is support to research by Ph.D. students in broadly conceived educational sciences, focused on the important topic of school and some other closely related issues. The project focuses on the macro- as well as micro-level of school operation, namely school management and decision-making, selected school-life rituals, the culture of key processes in school, the developmental potential regarding students´ ability to control their learning, pupils´ participation in self-governance, and the relation between school work and aesthetic education. The project also focuses on teachers: on their career development through school curricula planning, processes of achieving high standards of pedagogical work, and, last but not least, the issue of teachers´ identity. By combining approaches originating in basic and applied disciplines in educational studies with approaches used in borderline disciplines, the broad educational research undertaken within the project is expected to provide the discourse on school with new perspectives. The participants are expected to publish both individually and in teams and a wide co-operation with a number of academic and research institutions is envisioned as a part of the Ph.D. students´ mobility and further career growth.

Intergenerational Learning: children, parents and grandparents in non-formal education and informal learning (2009-2011)

Grant manager: Milada Rabušicová

Czech Science Foundation

The project deals with intergenerational learning in the context of family life, the term referring to phenomena and processes facilitating bidirectional transfer of knowledge, experience and attitudes within the family. It is a part of social learning taking place in situations in the family, during interaction and activities shared by the participant generations (children, parents, grandparents). The project focuses on non-formal intergenerational learning, i.e. joint participation of children and parents (grandparents) in courses and programs of non-formal education, and informal intergenerational learning, i.e. joint activities of children and their parents (grandparents) which the family organize themselves. The main research question of the project is “What is it that children, parents and grandparents learn from one another and which kind of opportunities do they have for that within non-formal education and informal learning?” The project has been inspired by the ongoing transformation of the current Czech family and the new models of family behaviour occurring in consequence of both external and internal conditions shaping family functioning. Educational studies dealing with these issues in the processes of family upbringing and education have not been available yet.

Czech School Head Teachers and their personal and Professional Path Development (2007-2010)

Grant manager: Milan Pol

Project team members: Petr Novotný, Martin Sedláček, Lenka Hloušková

The project focuses on head teachers at Czech primary schools as key actors of management in relatively autonomous schools. This internally heterogeneous group has not, despite some partial findings, been yet studied systematically in this country. We will first find how existing concepts and theoretical findings about school leadership and management are reflected in expectations placed on head teacher, how head teacher cope with the expectations and how such facts are reflected in educational and school polices. Then the development of personal and professional paths of head teachers will be studied as to how such paths are planned. The main research methods will include the analytical-comparative method, research of life story and in-depth interviews. These methods will be supplemented by other techniques. The respondents will be Czech primary school head teachers, ideally the same set for the duration of the project. The result should be a unified body of fundamental data about head teachers, thus enriching the possibilities of educational research, school policy a practice.

Communication in the Classroom (2009-2011)

 Czech Science Foundation, GA406/09/0752

Project team members: Klára Šeďová, Roman Švaříček, Zuzana Makovská, Jiří Zounek

The project being proposed focuses on educational communication in the classroom. The main objective is to use field research to arrive at a comprehensive description of educational communication between teachers and pupils in classes at the second level of Czech primary schools. The research design combines qualitative and quantitative research methods and techniques, the basis for which will be provided by data collection using direct observation in class, video studies from class and in-depth interviews with teachers and pupils.

The data obtained will be analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. A bottom-up approach will be used to arrive at a description of broader characteristics of processes constituting educational communication such as communication genres and their structure, the language used in class, ways of achieving communication consensus, communication noise, conflicts and conflict management etc. Data from video studies will be subjected to statistical analysis with focus on describing the structure of communication and quantifying the incidence of various phenomena.

Research and development projects

Experiential and Reflective Learning: Support of Students' Profesional
Development (2011 - 2014)

European Social Fund, Operational Programme for Education and Competitiveness grant project Registration Project ID: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/15.0202

Applicant: Masaryk University

Partners: The Leisure Time Centre Lužánky, Diagnostic Institute for Childern and Youth

Funded by: OP Education for Competitiveness, Area of ​​Higher Education (7.2.2)

Investigator: Mgr. Jan Kolář

The major aim of this project is to create and realize training module curriculum focused on experiential and reflective learning within the study program Pedagogy. During the project students from selected and relevant study fields of Masaryk University are prepared for specific training opportunities and few accented tasks of practice, in which classical frontal teaching fails or loses to the efficiency and effectiveness (e.g. implementation of prevention programs of socially pathological phenomena, cross-cutting themes of the Framework education program etc.). Graduates of this module will be equipped with specific professional skills of experts using experiential platforms and reflective learning, e.g.: they will be able to plan and implement educational activities using the immediate and subsequent professionally reflected experience of the clients of different ages and social groups; they will be able to choose appropriate resources from a wide range of modern methods and techniques; they will work with diverse client groups and their dynamics; they will be able to stimulate development process of clients through some activities of experiential learning and they will affect their cognitive, as well as emotional, attitudinal and value cultivation. Website: www.acor.cz.

Experiential learning for practice - Support of current/future Teachers' Professional
Development (2011 - 2014)

European Social Fund, Operational Programme for Education and Competitiveness grant project Registration Project ID: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/18.0004

Applicant: Masaryk University

Partners: The Leisure Time Centre Lužánky, Diagnostic Institute for Childern and Youth

Funded by: OP Education for Competitiveness, Area of ​​Higher Education (7.2.2)

Investigator: Mgr. Jan Kolář

The major aim of this project is to create and realize four-semester curriculum training module focused on experiential learning (EL) within some teacher training programs in the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Sports Studies of Masaryk University. During the project students are prepared for specific training opportunities and few accented tasks of practice, in which classical frontal teaching fails or loses to the efficiency and effectiveness (e.g. implementation of prevention programs of socially pathological phenomena, cross-cutting themes of the Framework education program etc.). The whole module will be designed as a combined study to allow a nonproblematic participation of working teachers. Graduates of this module will be equipped with specific professional skills of experts using experiential platforms and reflective learning, e.g.: they will be able to plan and implement educational activities using the immediate and subsequent professionally reflected experience of the clients of different ages and social groups; they will be able to choose appropriate resources from a wide range of modern methods and techniques; they will work with diverse client groups and their dynamics; they will be able to stimulate development process of clients through some activities of EL and they will affect their cognitive, as well as emotional, attitudinal and value cultivation. Website: www.acor.cz.

Innovation and modernization of preparing students for a complex application in adult education (2010 - 2013)

European Social Fund, Operational Programme for Education and Competitiveness grant project Registration Project ID: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/15.0195
Applicant: Masaryk University
Partners: Regional Advisory and Training Centre of the Academy J.A. Comenius Ltd. - (RATC AJAC) - Institute of lifelong education; Czech Educational Research Association / CERA /
Funded by: OP Education for Competitiveness, Area of ​​Higher Education (7.2.2)
Investigator: Mgr. Petr Novotny, Ph.D.

The main objective of the project is to innovate the studies focused on training consultancy and development work in adult education. This will be taking place in cooperation with the  applicant and appropriately selected partners and the competencies of graduates should meet   the requirements of the labour market as much as possible. Partial objectives, incorporated in key activities, are then innovation of studies in Andragogy curriculum taught at Faculty of Arts, linking students with their practical work through the development of practice system, formation and innovation of e-learning support and furthermore internationalization of studies (inviting foreign experts to develop curriculum and preparation and implementation of courses in English). Other objectives are continuous monitoring of developments in the labour market that the graduates are heading towards, innovation and development of the university courses focused on the area of ​​adult education for the students of related courses, especially pedagogical courses, training for teachers and lecturers and heads of practices in the field of andragogy and adult education. Website: www.projektcias.cz.

Strategy of Age Management in the Czech Republic (2010-2012)

European Social Fund; Development of Human Resources Operational Programme, a grant project

Project registration number: CZ.1.04/5.1.01/51.00079

Applicant: Czech Association of Adult Education Institutions

Partners: Brno-město Employment Bureau, Palacký University, Masaryk University (the Czech Republic), Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Finland)

Financial source: Human Resources and Employment Operational Programme, support area 4.5a.1

Aims of the project:

1.      Transfer of innovative tools used for finding a solution to problems of the 50+ target group in the labour market

2.       Application of the principles of Age Management in the Czech Republic

The main activities of the proposed project include a comparative analysis of the conditions and approaches used in the Czech Republic and Finland for the 50+ target group, information and training to 45 Czech experts within the Age Management Training product, a pilot testing of the Work Ability concept, a pilot testing of the Work Ability Index methodology with the 50+ target group, evaluation of the employability tools within the Czech Republic, and a pilot testing of the introduction of Age Management in the context of educational institution management.  An important outcome is the Methodological guide for employment bureaus, educational and research institutions, and other organizations involved in the work with the target group.

Improving Education and Professional Training of Students of Educational Sciences and Social Education and Counselling: Supporting Graduates' Personal Competences (2006 – 2008)

Researchers: Jan Kolář, Bohumíra Lazarová, Karla Brücknerová, Petr Novotný, Dana Knotová, Bára Nováková, Igor Klečka

European Social Fund, Operational Programme, Human Resource Development, grant project

The objective of the project “Improving Education and Professional Training of Students of Educational Sciences and Social Education and Counselling: Supporting Graduates' Personal Competences“ is to improve professional qualifications of graduates of departments of education and thereby support their chances in the labour market. The project focuses on the partly neglected but extremely important part of education and professional training of the graduates. The aim is to improve the set of the professional competences which supports their employability (the inadequacy in these competences may put the graduates in a disadvantageous position concerning employment, the graduates may consequently stop looking for a position in their field of study, etc.)

Lehrerfortbildung: Berufswahlorientierung und Berufliche Integration von Jugendlichen (2002 -2003)

Socrates Program, Comenius 2.1 Action (Training of School Education Staff):
(cooperating institutions: Landesinstitut für Schule und Weiterbildung, Soest, Germany; Universiteit Leiden, the Netherlands; project team members: Milan Pol, Lenka Hloušková, Petr Novotný)

Project website

 Development Projects

Educational Diagnostics (2010)

Higher Education Development Fund

Project manager: Bohumíra Lazarová
Project team member: Lenka Hloušková

The aim of the project is the innovation of the course of educational diagnostics within the Bachelor’s degree programmes Education and Social Education. The innovation lies in three key areas: extension of the subject by current issues, enrichment of the practical part and electronic support (work with specific tools), and facilitation of the access to knowledge to the public.

• By the innovation we in particular support:
• Students’ skills to work with specific diagnostic methods which can subsequently be used in educational practice
• Students’ skills to interpret and process the results of diagnostics
• Students’ orientation in the offer and quality of methods which they are entitled to use in their future practice
• Students’ reflection relating to their own possibilities and abilities to usediagnostic methods in practice, enhancing their own awareness of the risks and limits of diagnostic work
• Students’ general knowledge (and that of others, such as teachers) of literature relating to the topic, trying to enhance the access to academic texts and other materials and support the exchange of experience with selected diagnostic tools.
   

Social Pathology: A New Subject (2010)

Higher Education Development Fund

Project manager: Kateřina Lojdová

Project team members: Markéta Klusáčková & Dana Knotová

The aim of the project is to prepare the subject of social pathology, so far absent in the study programme of Social Education and Education at the Department of Educational Sciences of the Masaryk University’s Faculty of Arts. In practice, graduates of education and social education are more and more often confronted with social phenomena understood as destructive for individuals, groups and the whole society.  The new course will inform students about the current socio-pathological phenomena (such as aggression, addiction, extremist subcultures), developing their analytical and diagnostic skills. Besides lectures, the course consists of interactive seminars in which students will analyse some specific cases of socio-pathological phenomena (not only thos based on academic literature and empirical researchers, but on documentary films, fiction, or daily press too). Students will also have the opportunity to propose models of government strategies to treat selected phenomena, using the results of expert reports for the given target group, and work with drug testers.

Development projects

2005

Transformation and development project 2005 supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic
Development of Counselling Services at Masaryk University
(grant manager: Mgr. Šárka Karamazínová (Centre for Education and Counselling, MU), project team members: Jan Beran, Marek Navrátil, Dana Knotová, Lenka Hloušková)

The goal of the project is to develop an integrated concept of counselling and information services for students of Masaryk University. The goal of the project is to provide information, professional services and social support for students as a form of assistance in cases of adaptation problems or study failure and to prevent feelings of dissatisfaction and failure in studies and life. The project focuses especially on clients a without pathological symptoms and students with a range of special health needs.

Outputs of the project:
- development of educational programs for students of Masaryk University
- organization of communication and self-experience groups
- psychological incubator
- discussions with employers and experts working from the field
- introduction of an internship system

2004

Transformation and development program supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic
An Integrated Project of Lifelong Learning at Masaryk University Faculties. The project includes a sub-project called “Development of a training scheme for primary and secondary school counsellors – contemporary issues in education”.
(project manager: Dana Knotová)

The goal of the project is development of a training scheme for primary and secondary school counsellors, focused on the development of pro-social personality and professional traits. The course will deal with issues in special pedagogy, current issues in multicultural education and possibilities of prevention of social pathological phenomena.

Expected outputs:
1. development of a curriculum
2. syllabi development
3. provision of technological and physical equipment for the course (including technological devices, literature and study materials)

2004-2006

Development project supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Sub-program I, Letter a
A Three-year Program of Master Studies in Education (for graduates of Bachelor programs in fields other than Education and immediately related)
(project manager: Milan Pol)

The project will create conditions for implementation of a new program of studies as part of module-based studies at the Department of Educational Sciences. The objective is to prepare for implementation (and subsequent accreditation) a follow-up intramural program of Master studies in Education to extend the range of study programs offered by the Department of Educational Sciences. The expected standard length of studies in the program is 6 semesters. The program will be designed for graduates of Bachelor programs in fields other than Education or immediately related and will represent a tangible extension of the offer of studies programs for graduates of programs in fields other than Education.

Expected outputs:
1. development of a curriculum
2. development of syllabi for the individual disciplines
3. organizing a team of experts and program supervisors to prepare the curriculum and syllabi for the individual disciplines
4. provision of technological and material equipment, i.e. equipping the Department with adequate didactic technologies, literature and study materials

2004

The University Development Fund (FRVŠ), Reg. No. F5 486 a
Development of the PhD Program in Education at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University
(project manager: Milan Pol)

The goal of the project is innovative change and qualitative development of the PhD program in Education at the Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.

The project deals with the organization and evaluation of a cycle of 10 lectures by Czech and foreign experts in Education in 2004. The cycle will cover a significant portion of the range of current issues in Education as on of the social sciences. It will concern issues in general education, methodology of education, comparative education, general theory of instruction, andragogy, selected topics in theory of instruction, and a number of other subdisciplines. The 2004 cycle of lectures will serve as a pilot stage of the cycle of lectures for PhD students; the project will be evaluated at the end of 2004 and steps will be made to make the initiative a relatively permanent feature of the PhD program in Education at the Department of Educational Sciences, faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno.

2004

The University Development Fund (FRVŠ), Reg. No. A 471 b
Multimedia Training Room for Teacher Trainees and Students of Psychology and Education
(project manager: Jiří Zounek, project team members: M. Svoboda, M. Pol)

The project is focused on establishing a “multimedia training room for teacher trainees and students of psychology and education” at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. The training room should become a space where students will – under teacher supervision –prepare for coping with modern technologies effectively and use electronic media.

2004

The University Development Fund (FRVŠ), Reg. No. F5 484 a
Innovation of the Andragogy Course at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University
(project manager: Petr Novotný)

The project is an organic extension of the activities of the project manager’s department (workshops and conferences) dealing with theoretical and practical development of training for professionals in communication and human resources. The project is designed so that experience gained within its framework can be further developed and implemented effectively at the university. By elaborating an important and interesting topic, the proposed project will provide the project manager’s department with new opportunities in training of students of Education and Social Education and Counselling and above all prepare conditions for linking theory with practice. This effort will increase the labour market opportunities for the potential graduates. The curricular innovation will be supported with an adequate selection of information resources, which are still rather scarce. The implementation of the project will, among other things, open new opportunities for extending the Third Age University curricula.

Specific outputs of the project:
- introduction of new topics in the curriculum of the subject (e.g. reflective practice, action research, application of the Kolb cycle of experiential learning etc.) in a form facilitating students their practical application in adult education;
- testing the functionality of integration of new topics into the curriculum;
- creating a physical, technological and information basis for the outputs listed above (literature, internet resource processing, study materials).

2004

BCES (Brno Centre of European Studies) project at Masaryk University
A System of European Study Units Integrated within BCES
(project team member: Milada Rabušicová)

The project’s ambition is to develop and deepen the functions of the BCES coordination centre and to establish organization and conceptual basis for development of specific courses concentrating an offer of information services in European education at Masaryk University of Brno. Masaryk University intends to use the framework of the project to contribute to nation-wide and international cooperation including relevant support to administrative, political and diplomatic bodies in the Czech Republic and around Europe. By contributing to the course offer, the following faculties of Masaryk University will participate in the project: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Social Studies, Faculty of Business and Administration, Faculty of Education. The Department of Educational Sciences of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University will participate in the project by offering a newly developed course called “Czech Educational Policies in the European Context”.

2008

Innovating Course “Qualitative Date Analysis”

(researcher: Martin sedláček)

The project objective is to innovate and broaden the scope of the existing course “Qualitative Data Analysis”, which is offered by the Department of Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University for the study programmes of Educational Science and Social Education and Counselling (for the students in MA degree studies of these programmes). The innovation consists in a much wider offer of practical research activities. Students will be presented with the possibilities brought up by the apparently most sophisticated software ATLAS/ti in the fields of processing and interpretation of data collected in qualitative research. Furthermore, they will also have a chance to work with this software in practical seminars – when solving their own projects.  

2008

University Development Fund (FRVŠ)

Creating Course “E-learning” as a Part of Innovation of Studies at Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Arts, MU

(researcher: Jiří Zounek)

The object of the project is to open a course “E-learning” in the curricula of the post-bachelor master studies of Educational Sciences and Social Education and Counselling. The implementation of the course reflects both, the recent advancement of ICT and the attempts to include ICT in university education. The course will help to improve students' command of modern ICT technologies and also to improve their knowledge of educational theory and research, or school policy.

2005 - 2008

TEMPUS Joint European Project "Training Courses for Institution Bulding" project number: 25174-2004
Centre of Formation of Second Professional Degree for Teachers in Uzbekistan

(coordinator: Pierre Mendés University, Grenoble, participants: Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University; Free University of Brussels, University of Malaga, Tashkent State Padagogical University)

This is a development project which aims at creating a centre of formation of second professional degree for teachers, at developing the curriculum of further education of  teachers, at implementing e-learning in teachers' education and at creating an institution for analysis and monitoring of education in the context of changes in the labour market.