Critical issues in teacher training are those areas in the educational curriculum of future teachers that are considered particularly challenging, problematic or difficult to master and thus hinder their professional development.
The aim of the University of South Bohemia research project carried out by the Faculty of Education in 2022-2024 was to identify critical issues in training foreign language teachers in the Czech Republic. Critical issues were examined from the perspective of various stakeholders in all components of the foreign language teacher training programme, i.e. language competence, literature and cultural studies, linguistics, and methodology. In our contribution, presented jointly by teacher educators and students involved in the project, we are going to explore critical issues as perceived by the final-year teacher trainees. The students are going to present the results of a pilot study with a focus on the importance of the individual components of the training programme from the student standpoint. The educators will concentrate on critical issues in the area of methodology as viewed by students across the Czech Republic.
Data was obtained through a questionnaire containing both quantitative and qualitative questions, which was distributed to all university teacher-training institutions in the Czech Republic. The target group were students enrolled in the final year of regular, in-person Master’s degree courses to qualify as teachers of foreign languages at primary or lower-secondary schools.
We believe that our findings will draw attention to critical issues in foreign language teacher training and contribute to the improvement of their educational programmes.

Authors:
Kateřina Dvořáková, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
Petr Dvořák, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
Vojtěch Fuka, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
Vojtěch Tilp, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Katerina Dvorakova currently works as a Senior Lecturer for the Department of English Studies in the Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia (Czech Republic).

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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