Upper Secondary School Teacher Training in Estetic Education

The programme is based on the tradition of teaching art disciplines together with aesthetics and their systematic linking with popularization and pedagogical practice. This concept is to some extent typical for the entire Czech environment, however, at the Brno Faculty of Arts, considerable emphasis is placed on the development of pedagogical skills and on the scientific investigation of subject-specific didactics, while everything took place across the definitions of individual arts sciences, including aesthetics. This is evidenced, for example, by Professor Vladimír Helfert's pioneering work, Fundamentals of Music Education in Non-Musical Schools (Prague 1930), and the continuing interest in the issue is demonstrated by the work of Jiří Fukač, Stanislav Tesař (both based at the Institute of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, MU) and Jozef Vereš, Music Pedagogy: Concept and Application of Music Educational Ideas in the Past and Present (Brno 2000).

“Art is!”

The programme focuses on subjects from the fields of pedagogy, psychology, aesthetics and other arts sciences. Teaching is provided by leading experts from the corresponding institutes and departments of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University and specialists from practice, often pioneers of the latest didactic methods and trends. The modern concept of the programme consists of enriching and expanding the outdated ineffective model, where aesthetic education = art and/or music. In many secondary schools, this model could rightfully be called simply "drawing" and "singing", while the education of pupils as active consumers of culture and art gets lost. The real impact of this situation is obvious from the current marginal position of culture in public discourse and state administration. The concept of aesthetic education in the field includes both familiarization with individual chapters of culture and art, as well as their active "consumption" and critical discourse about them, all with significant overlaps primarily with sociology, philosophy, and to a lesser extent also psychology. In an overall broad concept, aesthetic education is conceived as an equal cultural counterpart to civic education. The field can be described as pioneering and the goal should be the definitive inclusion of aesthetic education in the framework educational programs for secondary schools, which would significantly increase the cultural literacy of an important segment of the population.

The study of the programme also includes general pedagogy and psychology, as well as extensive pedagogical practice.

Practical training

A mandatory part of the program is teaching practice in the second, third, and fourth semesters of study. Its total extent is 24 credits.

A graduate of the follow-up master's degree program in Aesthetic Education for Secondary Schools will be qualified to master and creatively develop the requirements set by contemporary pedagogy in the field of aesthetic education, culture and art. He/she will be qualified to teach subjects in this area and will be able to participate in the creation and development of school educational programs, or other conceptual documents of the school. In general, he/she will demonstrate knowledge of various aspects of the phenomenon of art, culture and their theoretical reflection, and the ability to conduct individual research and publication practice in the areas of aesthetic education, art sciences and school pedagogy is also expected. A suitable place for a graduate of the program will be schools whose goal is to reform and increase the quality of teaching in a given area. Detailed knowledge of contemporary cultural and educational practice, as well as managerial and institutional aspects of education, will enable graduates to perform quality work in leadership positions soon after graduation, fully in accordance with the current requirements of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. A graduate of the program will gain professional qualifications to perform regulated professions of teaching staff.

Deadline for submitting applications: January 1 - April 30

Who the programme is intended for: The programme is intended for graduates of Bachelor’s degree programmes focused on art and culture. In the case of fields which are only marginally related, the topic of the Bachelor’s thesis is decisive. The guarantor of the field decides on the admissibility of the application on the basis of an application addressed to the Office for Studies - Admission Procedure, FA MU (email: prijimaci.rizeni@phil.muni.cz).

Subject matter of the entrance examination: The entrance examination takes the form of a checking test on the history and present day of culture and art in the scope of the Bachelor’s single-subject studies state exams of the programme Combined Art Studies. The test will consist of 20 questions, each with five options (a) to (e).

Waiver of the entrance examination: The admission procedure is waived for graduates of Bachelor’s and Master’s fields and programmes of Combined Art Studies, Musicology, Theory of Interactive Media, the Academy of Early Music, and related fields and programmes at FA MU who obtained an excellent (A) or very good (B) result in the final state examination. The entrance examination may also be waived for applicants whose overall result of the state final examination was assessed as "passed with excellent results" in the above-mentioned programmes. Applicants can ask for a waiver for the entrance examination via the e-application form, section "Application for waiver of the entrance examination".

Website Department of Musicology.

General information on the course of the admission procedure to the follow-up Master’s degree programmes at FA MU can be found here. Documents for the current admission procedure are kept in Materials for Applicants.

Criteria for evaluation

Pass/fail line of the entrance examination: 40 points (out of 100).

Minimum score and numbers of accepted applicants in past years

A graduate of this consecutive master's degree can continue in doctoral programs at the pedagogical and humanities faculties of Czech universities, in the doctoral program Digital Culture and Creative Industries, and after meeting the admission conditions, can also continue in any doctoral study.