Private Supplementary Tutoring in the Czech Republic

The study contributes to the literature on private supplementary tutoring by shedding light on this phenomenon in the Czech Republic. The aim of the paper is to identify the reasons for seeking out private supplementary tutoring and to assess the factors underlying its demand. In the representative sample of 1,265 senior upper-secondary school students from two distinct regions of the Czech Republic, 37% acknowledged participation in private tutoring lessons (provided by individuals) and 10% reported enrollment in preparatory courses for university admission (organized by institutions) during their upper-secondary studies. It seems that both enrollment in different educational tracks and specific school subjects are associated with different reasons for taking private tutoring lessons. The results of binary logistic regression suggest that the mother’s educational attainment, family income, students’ academic performance, residence in the capital city, and female gender are significant predictors of students’ enrollment and participation in the explored private tutoring activities. These findings confirm the strong influence of family background on educational attainment identified in previous Czech social-stratification research. In a wider European context, the patterns of private supplementary tutoring resemble those in neighboring countries.     

Novice teachers learning through participation in a teacher study group

Using Lave and Wenger’s framework of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, this case study explores the experiences of three novice teachers engaged with more experienced teachers in a teacher study group during their first year of teaching. The study illustrates how, over time, the novices moved from more peripheral to more central participation as revealed through changes in their talk and feelings about participating. The study highlights the importance of legitimacy and peripherality provided by the more experienced teachers and identifies the ways in which the facilitator scaffolded and mediated the novices’ participation and learning.     

Assessment in the school systems of the Czech Republic

Student assessment in the Czech Republic is still rather traditional, with classroom practice continuing to focus on summative assessment. The country has regularly participated in international surveys, but the findings from these only started to influence educational policy during the past decade, when Czech students’ performance fell markedly in all assessment domains. The principal response has been to introduce standardised school-leaving examinations at different points in the primary and secondary school systems. The examinations have several widely acknowledged shortcomings, however, and in the meantime assessment for learning remains a neglected area. The improvement of evaluation and assessment practices in the Czech Republic is hindered by low levels of expertise among teachers, principals and policy-makers, and the private sector testing agencies that have become very active in the country suffer from the same weaknesses.     

捷克共和国职业技术教育探析

捷克共和国(以下简称捷克)地处欧洲中心,面积为7.88万平方千米,人口1033万,国家不大,但其独具特色的资格证书认证制度和职业技术教育体系值得我们借鉴。 一、捷克教育基本情况 1.教育体系及资格证书认证制度 捷克的教育体系涵盖的范围很广,并且对应不同的学习阶段都有其相应的资格证书,如图所示。     

Integrating Physical Education and Geography in elementary education in the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the lack of international knowledge and research in interdisciplinary curriculum development and teaching in the subjects of Physical Education and Geography. The authors analysed and compared elementary school curricular documents from two ex-communist countries, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia (an ex-socialist Yugoslav republic) to reveal how integration of Physical Education and Geography can be embedded at the policy level. A questionnaire survey among teachers examined how the integration is implemented in practice. The authors present some practical examples to show how Physical Education and Geography integration can be achieved. The findings of the study indicate that while interdisciplinarity is an important policy goal of the educational systems of these two countries, integration is not being implemented in practice.     

GLOBE in the Czech Republic: a program evaluation

The article presents results of the evaluation of the GLOBE program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) in the Czech Republic. The evaluation explores the implementation of the program in schools and its impact on research skills. Four hundred and sixty six pupils, aged 13, from 28 different schools participated in the evaluation. The evaluation revealed problems with the implementation of the program in schools. The majority of pupils usually collect data and work with worksheets in the program. The other activities, such as the analysis and comparison of collected data or planning GLOBE activities, are done only occasionally or never. Although one of the main goals of the program is to develop pupils' research skills, the program had no measurable effect on this outcome. According to these results, changes in the way the program is implemented are needed. Recommendations for further program development and evaluation are discussed.     

Changes and trends in secondary agricultural education in the Czech Republic

Programmes of education for farmers in the form of Winter Schools, in the early 19th century, were gradually broadened into agricultural education for employment in farming or as preparation for higher education. In the 20th century, vocational education was developed at Apprenticeship and Secondary Schools to meet the needs of large-scale state farms introduced during 1953–60 by the communist political regime. Teacher education for these schools was developed during the 1950s and 60s, based on Agricultural Universities. Sudden and rapid change followed the political changes in 1989 when land was returned to private ownership in a new structure of agriculture based on market economy. This led to changes in production and a decrease in the number of people employed in agriculture. The number of students in the Agriculture Secondary Schools remained more or less the same, but curricula were substantially changed. Some schools diversified into new areas such as agro-tourism and environmental management. Those that continued with agricultural studies developed specialised areas such as farm business management and economics. Information technology became an important area of study. The schools began again to offer education and advice to local farmers. Early in the 21st century, change is again evident as policy for rural development becomes the diversification of rural economies to create a countryside which is less dominated by agriculture. New, sustainable economic activity comes from alternative uses of farm buildings, market niche crops and livestock products, and attraction enterprises for people in urban areas. The paper reviews the major trends and changes of the past 150 years and suggests how these are likely to project into the future of agricultural education in the Czech Republic.     

Diversity in language: Outdoor terminology in the Czech Republic and Britain

This paper reviews literature related to outdoor terminology as it is used within the languages of British English and Czech. It provides the background to the outdoors in the Czech Republic where terminology has adopted and adapted many English language outdoor terms. The paper analyses the differences and similarities between terms and deals with the problems associated with defining and explaining outdoor terms and translating the British English terms into Czech and vice versa. Semi structured interviews were conducted with British and Czech academic experts. The findings suggest that as the outdoor field develops there is a need for more understanding of the cultural, historical, and geographical differences between concepts and terminology used in both English and non-English speaking countries, for example, the specific indigenous nature of the Czech turistika activities.     

Tertiary education in the Czech Republic: the pathway to change

This article analyzes recent policy proposals to reform Czech tertiary education. A brief overview of the evolution of Czech tertiary education presents the background against which emerging policy trends in education are examined. We relate the changes in tertiary education to the policy framework and recommendations of the OECD, underpinned by the ideology of neoliberal globalization. Finally, we discuss some issues that the Czech government is encountering while trying to implement its new policies in tertiary education and the consequences these policies may have on Czech tertiary education, academia and students.     

Explaining different pathways in higher education policy in Romania and the Czech Republic

This article examines the differential development of higher education governance in two Central and Eastern European countries since 1989. In current discourse, the market‐oriented model of higher education governance has established itself as an anchor point towards which systems are gradually converging. At the same time international organisations, in particular the EU and OECD, are promoting the use of market‐oriented instruments to meet the demands of massification, the knowledge society and the transforming role of the state. As a result, Romania has shrugged off its historical pattern of state‐centred governance and control and rapidly converged on the market‐oriented model. The Czech Republic, however, has resisted trends towards marketisation and clung to its historically anchored model. The analysis aims to offer theoretical explanations based on historical institutionalism and organisational isomorphism for the divergent development of these two countries despite similar internal and external conditions and their tight integration into the Bologna Process.     

捷克的教育发展状况及其若干改革趋向

随着市场经济体制的建立，捷克在教育经费体制、办学体制和管理体制等方面实施了大面积改革，尤其是在私立教育、高等教育、教育国际合作等领域的改革趋向，对于当前我国的教育改革具有一定的借鉴和启示作用。     

The Evolution of Educational Inequalities in the Czech Republic after 1989

This article deals with the evolution of inequalities in access to tertiary education in the Czech Republic since 1989. Following the 'velvet revolution' in 1989, the demand for both secondary school education (with a secondary school diploma) and post-secondary education has grown considerably. The opening hypothesis of this article is that there has been an increase in educational inequalities in the Czech Republic since 1989 resulting from the unequal development of the secondary and tertiary sectors of the educational system. The author starts with the findings of Gerber and Hout (1995) and Gerber (2000), that the pressure caused by an excess of applicants between these two levels of education disadvantages the lower social strata. Using logistic regression, the author models the influence of social origin on the likelihood of a successful transition from secondary school to post-secondary school in the period 1948-99. The hypothesis of the growing influence of social origin on success in the transition between secondary and post-secondary schools in the 1990s was not, however, confirmed. On the contrary, the trend after 1989 testifies rather to a decrease in inequalities in access to post-secondary education|spagf|ro|epagf|.     

Teacher and parental views on inclusive education policy lending in the Czech Republic

In international education policy articulations by organisations such as the UNESCO, inclusive education is defined rather vaguely, usually in terms of human rights. Yet, national reception it is more or less taken for granted. Analyses of policy lending show that when national education traditions are not respected, the lack of clarity about the concrete form of inclusion is further augmented by resistance to a foreign import. Taking the example of the implementation of inclusive education in the Czech Republic, a secondary analysis of survey results on responses from teachers and parents is presented. This analysis contributes to a better understanding of the reactions of two groups of actors who have had only a marginal involvement in preparing the implementation of inclusion; specifically, teachers at ordinary schools and parents of pupils with special education needs. Teachers are critical of inclusion, which they regard as special care for individual pupils with special education needs. It is only in schools which have lengthy experience with integration that a transformation of the school culture and the teaching profession in the direction of greater teamwork has taken place. The imperative of inclusion coming from above is regarded more as interference with what is a spontaneous development. The view of parents to pupils with special education needs was that systemic support to inclusion was lacking. Parents are forced to be intermediaries between other actors, but often do not have enough information and are not respected by teachers as experts on their children.     

捷克高等职业教育运行机制及其启示

捷克高等职业教育经过近20年的发展,形成了良好的依法管理的氛围,其完备的教学条件、高质量的师资队伍、灵活多样的教学形式和独特的考试方式确保了高等职业学校教学质量的稳步提升。捷克高等职业教育的成功经验对我国高等职业教育改革具有多方面的借鉴意义。     

The Lisbon Strategy Challenges to the Czech Republic Human Resources

When achieving long‐term sustainable growth, the key role is assigned to ­knowledge‐based competitiveness. The new EU Member States therefore face a double challenge on the Lisbon road. On the one hand, higher expenditure is required to improve the quality of research and education input and infrastructure, and on the other, innovation system changes are necessary to increase the efficiency of expended resources. At the same time, both supply and demand sides must be adequately balanced in policy supporting knowledge‐based competitiveness. On the supply side, the position of the new Member States in EU‐25 has been defined in the competitiveness matrix; on the demand side, specific attention is given to the quality of human resources as a prerequisite of competitiveness in the EU as assessed by Czech companies. Finally, recommendations are formulated for the competitiveness support both in the form of a comprehensive innovation policy and a more specific support to human resource supply for innovation.     

捷克布拉格城外，漫游特雷辛诸小镇

特雷辛长久以来都是一个奇特的地方。18世纪末．奥匈帝国哈伯斯堡王朝的国王们为了抵抗普鲁士人的进入进行了持续的努力,将特雷辛建成了一个巨大的军事堡垒。但是,这个地方太大了．以至于你很难把它当成一个堡垒。这个地方被分成了两部分——特雷辛镇和一些拥有不准确命名的“集中营”——城墙绵延数千米。的确．人们认为这个地方有一条5。多千米长的隧道将一切都连通起来。