The Centre for Pedagogical Skills - Paedagogium was established in 2018 as a coordination platform to promote the enhancement of teaching skills at Charles University.
The main impetus for the enhancement of pedagogical skills came from:
the current trend at a number of prestigious foreign universities,
the positive experience gained in similar shorter programmes run by the Rectorate of Charles University and individual faculties,
recurring signs of interest on the part of academic staff and doctoral students,
requirements to assess the quality of educational activity,
growing demands for systematic support of professional development of university staff, etc.
The Centre for Pedagogical Skills - Paedagogium reflects the transformations in tertiary education in recent decades when the context of higher education has changed. The examples include the shift from massification to universalisation, the Bologna Process, internationalisation, technological development including didactic technologies, and others. What is being reflected is also the changing student population due to demographic developments, the propagation of distance education and the lifelong learning trend. Last but not least, the Centre also reflects the new demands placed upon university teachers.
The Idea: to enable Charles University academic staff (and also those acquiring qualifications at Charles University for their academic careers) to maximise and utilise the professional potential of a higher education teacher; to provide a new perspective on the professional qualities of an academic worker – shift from double-trackedness to double-singleness.
The Aim: to co-create a platform for the transfer and sharing of both theoretical knowledge and practical skills and of experience in the field of higher education pedagogics. The Pedagogical Skills Education Programme has been designed for new as well as experienced academic staff who wish to improve their didactic and pedagogico-psychological competencies.
The Principles:
1. Openness to innovation and new trends; openness to new topics, lecturers and other colleagues.
2. Evidence-based approach to tertiary pedagogics.
3. Regard for the needs, possibilities and experience of a heterogenous target group; interest in long-term cooperation.
